Be My Escape
by Kay Skie
Summary: Max, a sixteen year old girl, blames herself for her parents divorce and has to move to Virginia with her mom, dogs and two sisters and Fang, a sixteen year old boy who lives with a foster mom is going to school for the first time in years meet at the bus stop. Can the two uncover the other's past and help each other escape their misery? Hopefully it's better than the summary.
1. Chapter 1: Antisocial Tendencies

**Max**

My name is Maximum Ride. I was born to replace my older brother Ari. He was sick for a while, so my dad wanted to have me so he could have another son. There was just one little problem with his plan: I'm a girl. Now Ari's gone, my dad hates me and my parents are getting a divorce because of me. My mom says it isn't my fault, but it's sort of my fault because its about what my dad has done to me.

It started when I was nine, shortly after Ari died my dad started hitting me. I didn't tell anyone because I thought I deserved it. Then he went after my youngest sister Angel, one day and I freaked out. My fifteen year old sister Ella, called our mom and then I called the police. My dad tried to stop me by hitting me, but the cops heard everything, tracked the phone to my house and threw my dad in jail.

Now my mom, Ella, my six year old sister Angel and our dogs, Total and Akila have to move from Arizona to Virginia. That means leaving my boyfriend Sam and the few friends I have. Although I must admit, my friends were more like acquaintances and Sam and I have been having problems for a while. He's become abusive and highly possessive about me.

_It's probably good that I'm leaving him._ I think as we drive away from our old house.

I fall asleep in the car and have nightmares. I hate my nightmares. They're all different, but about the same sort of thing every night: abuse. Sleep sucks.

When I wake up, we're driving into the driveway of a medium sized house. It looks nice-much nicer than our old house. We walk in and chose our rooms. I pick one with dark blue walls. Ella picks a purple room and Angel picks the pink one. It's like the rooms were made for us.

Mom walks into my room. "Do you like it?" she asks.

I nod, not looking at her. It's all my fault we have to move and now she's giving me an awesome room. That's not fair to her.

Mom wraps me in a hug. "This isn't your fault Maxie. It's your father's fault." she tells me.

I nod into her shoulder refusing to cry. I have to be strong for my family.

"It's okay Max. You need to stop blaming yourself." she tells me.

I pull away and sit on the bed.

"Do you want some dinner?" Mom asks.

I shake my head.

Angel pops her head in. "Did I hear you say dinner?" she asks.

Mom smiles, "Yes dear."

Angel jumps onto my lap. "What do you want to eat Max?" she asks, looking up at me with her wide blue eyes full of innocence.

I smile down at her, "How about we ask Mom to buy pizza?"

Angel grins, turns to Mom and gives her Bambi eyes.

Mom smiles, "Okay."

Angel grins and jumps into Mom's lap, hugging her. I love my baby sister so much. We have pizza for dinner and my mood brightens a little bit.

* * *

**Fang**

It's the first day of school. I haven't been to school in two years, but I don't really care. I just want to get the first day over with so I can see how it's gonna happen and what it will be like. I spend breakfast trying to figure out how to avoid the haircut my foster mom has been suggesting. Shaggy hair is just my style I guess.

I'm almost done with my cereal when Ms. Monroe walks in.

"Hey Nicolas, do you want to get some new clothes later today? Maybe with less black?" she suggests, sounding a bit hopeful about the less black part. She's very cheery and likes bright and colorful things, so she doesn't seem to like how my small wardrobe is entirely black.

I shake my head, "No thanks Ms. Monroe."

"Okay honey. Is there anything I can do for you?" she asks.

"Can you call me Fang?" I ask, finishing my cereal.

Ms. Monroe smiles, "Okay Fang. Have fun at school."

I nod, grab my backpack and walk out the door.

* * *

**Max**

I wake up covered in a cold sweat. Looking at the clock I sigh, it's already 5:00 AM, and my alarm's gonna go off at 5:30, so I might as well get up. Shivering a little, I slowly get out of bed and grab a blue tee shirt, black jeans and a grey-black hoody. I take the clothes to the bathroom and shower. When I'm out, I leave my hair in the towel while I put on my blue Vans. Then I take the towel out and grab my midnight blue backpack as I go to the kitchen for breakfast. By the time I get there, Ella's already eating and Mom's making pancakes and eggs.

"Do you want some honey?" Mom asks.

"Yes please." I reply.

Ella looks surprised, I never use manners and Mom gives me a look that says she is very concerned for me and wants to help. I shrug, I just want to be a better daughter for her.

After breakfast, Ella and I walk to the bus stop together. There are already a few people gathering around a bench. Ella walks over there, but I stop when I get to the stop sign across the street. I don't want to talk to so many people at once. I'm somewhat antisocial, unlike Ella who Mom calls a social butterfly. She turns and motions for me to come with her, but I shake my head and motion for her to go over there without me. I want her to have a good time and she won't have one while she worries about me. My sister understands what I'm trying to say and she walks over to one of the groups. Soon she's talking and laughing with them as if she's known them her whole life.

Not sure what else to do, I stand still, fighting the urge to rock on my feet like I do when I'm nervous. Looking around, I notice a boy around my age, sixteen walking towards me. He has black shaggy shoulder-length hair, dark obsidian colored eyes, and an olive skin tone. I can't help but think he's pretty cute.

_Well, this is it I guess. He's the first person I'm going to meet at this school._ I think, feeling even more nervous.

I awkwardly wave when he stands a few yards away from me.

"Hi." I say.

"Hi." he replies.

"I'm Max, what's your name?"

"Fang."

There's a weird pause of silence.

"So, what grade are you in?" I ask.

"Eleventh. You?"

"Same."

The bus comes and I walk ahead of Fang to get to the bus. As expected, the bus is packed and Fang ends up having to sit by me in the back of the bus where nobody can see us because there are no other seats available. We make small talk during the drive to school. Fang seems pretty silent, but when he does talk its always really interesting and I actually want him to keep talking. I'm a bit disappointed when we have to part ways.

* * *

**Fang**

I walk to the bus stop and see a bench full of teenagers on one side of the street and on the other side I see a girl with dirty blonde hair, wearing black jeans, and a grayish, blackish hoody. When I stand a few yards away, she turns and looks at me with beautiful chocolate brown eyes.

She kinda waves when she sees me. Then she says, "Hi."

"Hi." I reply, not sure if I want to talk to her.

"I'm Max, what's your name?"

"Fang."

"What grade are you in?"

"Eleventh. You?"

"Same."

The bus comes and Max walks ahead of me as we walk to the bus. It's really crowded and I end up sitting by Max. This isn't exactly a tragedy because after talking to her for a little while I realize she seems pretty cool. I actually enjoy talking to her. When we get off the bus, I'm tempted to ask her for her number so we can talk like this all the time, but she says "Later." and walks away before I can ask her.

_I just made a friend due to antisocial tendencies. That figures. _I think, smiling inwardly as I walk to the school's office to get my schedule.

* * *

**Well, here's the first chapter of my new story. I'm still going to work on the others, I just get inspiration for different things at different times. It's weird and hard to explain but, yeah... Anyway, was it good? Did it completely suck? Please be brutally honest. I'd really like to know.**

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**Here's a quick preview to the next chapter:**

**Max**

Fang and I part ways and I try to find the office. After searching for a few minutes a tall boy with strawberry blonde hair, fair skin, blue eyes and glasses walks over to me and asks, "Are you new here?"

I nod.

"Are you looking for the office?" He asks.

I nod again.

"It's this way." he leads me to the office.

When we get to the office he says, "Good luck." The boy winks at me and walks away.


	2. Chapter 2: Notebooks

**Max**

Fang and I part ways and I try to find the office. After searching for a few minutes a tall boy with strawberry blonde hair, fair skin, blue eyes and glasses walks over to me and asks, "Are you new here?"

I nod.

"Are you looking for the office?" He asks.

I nod again.

"It's this way." He leads me to the office. When we get to the office he says, "Good luck." He winks at me and walks away.

I walk into the office and a lady at a desk beckons me over to her.

"Hi, how can I help you?" She asks.

"Hi, my name is Maximum Ride and I'm here to get my schedule." I say.

She looks at her computer screen and starts typing away. I have enough time to wonder where Ella went before a group of laughing teens enter the office. My sister is among them, smiling and laughing away with the rest of them. I'm happy to notice that Fang is also with them although I must admit he kind of sticks out. He's the only one wearing all black and he's then only one of them not laughing; he just looks completely neutral.

"Here you go." The lady smiles and hands me my schedule.

I start for the door but Ella says, "Ooh Max, can you wait for me?"

I wait by the door and check out my schedule to see what Mom signed me up for. First block is Spanish 3 (this will be an easy class, my mom is fluent so she can help if I need it, and I love Spanish), second block is AP English (I'm a little bit of a lit-nerd,) third block is a culinary class that despite my mother's good intentions I will probably fail (I suck at cooking), fourth block is Algebra 2, (I'm worried about this one too simply because math and I have a complicated relationship: sometimes I understand it and everything's okay, sometimes I don't understand any of it and it's like the teacher's speaking another language), fifth block is chemistry, sixth block is VA History (this is a required class in Virginia), seventh block is Creative Writing, and eighth block is a drama class. I let out a sigh of relief, I can handle these classes; especially AP English, Creative Writing and Drama. (I want to be a movie-script writer when I grow up, so these are the only classes that I consider relavent to my life.)

"Hey Max, which classes did you get?" Ella asks.

We trade schedules and Ella grins, "We have Algebra 2, and Culinary class together! Those are gonna be fun!"

I smile, "Yeah."

"Ooh Max, these are my new friends. This is Nudge, she's fifteen," she points to a girl with curly brown hair, coffee-colored skin and brown eyes who smiles and waves when Ella says her name. "This is Zephyr, but everyone calls him the Gasman or Gazzy. He's my age too." She points to a boy with light blonde hair that's spiked up with black and blue tips, fair skin and big blue eyes that seem to be full of mischief and feigned innocence. (I like to try to read people). "This is Igward, he's Gazzy's older brother. He's your age." She points at the guy who showed me where the office was.

"So, Igward huh?" I ask.

"My mother secretly hates me. I actually go by Iggy." He tells me.

"Oh and this is Fang." Ella says, pointing at Fang. "You were talking to him earlier, but I wasn't sure if you got his name." She tells me.

"Thanks Ella." I smile. She's weird but she's just trying to help in her own way.

A bell rings and the lady passing out schedules says, "That's the warning bell, does anyone want a map before you get to class?"

Ella and Nudge get maps. I don't get one because I don't want to target myself, but Ella hands me a map so I take it to be nice. We all leave in different directions, but then Iggy calls me over, asking what class I have first. I show him my schedule and he says, "Sweet! I know where this class is."

We start walking together and I notice Fang by himself so I ask him what class he has. He shows me his schedule.

"We're going that way. Do you want to join us?" I ask.

He nods.

"Oh yeah by the way, what's your name anyway?" Iggy asks, "Ella kept calling you Max right?"

"My name's Maximum, but I go by Max." I answer.

"Maximum? And you _still_ made fun of Igward?" Iggy asks.

I shrug, grinning.

Fang looks amused.

Iggy turns to Fang, "What about you? Is your real name Fang?" Iggy asks.

"No." Fang says.

"What is it then?" I ask.

"Nicolas." Fang answers.

"Why do you go by Fang?" I ask.

"My twin sister used to say my teeth looked like fangs, so she called me Fang. I still like the nickname, so that's what I go by it." He shrugs.

"Is she here too?" I ask.

Fang looks straight ahead, face expressionless, but judging by the pain that seems to be in his eyes, I know I just asked a _really_ stupid question.

"Okay, here we are." Iggy says, and then he stops abruptly. "Oh yeah, the schedules here are really weird: we go to the first four classes on Day 1's and last four classes on Day 2's. Today's a Day 1-obviously. It's sort of weird but there you go. Good luck." he adds, walking into a classroom.

It's loud and already full of students. I sit in the very back, not wanting to be around a lot of people at once. Feeling completely antisocial, I break out my favorite black writing notebook and midnight blue pen. Fang sits beside me, seeming to have the same idea, getting out a similar notebook. He brings out a pencil and starts drawing, eyes focused intently on the paper. I look at where I left off in my story and start writing until the bell rings. It breaks my concentration and startles me. I drop my notebook and Fang drops his too. We quickly grab at our notebooks and shove them into our bags.

Iggy looks at us and laughs, sitting beside me.

I start to ask what's so funny when the teacher says, "Buenos Dias mi clase. Me llamo Señor Rodriguez." (For those of you who don't speak Spanish, he said, "Good morning my class. My name is Mr. Rodriguez.")

"Hola." Everyone responds. ("Hello". Everyone responds.)

He starts speaking in Spanish again and says he's going to take attendance. He calls out a few names and then calls, "Igward Fredrickson."

"Señor dude, don't you remember me? It's Iggy." Iggy calls back.

"Si, the one who didn't pay attention or speak fluently after two years, but still managed to pass the class." Señor Rodriguez says.

There are snickers and Iggy grins. "See, you do remember me."

More snickers and the teacher continues calling names.

"Nicolas Johnson." Mr. Rodriguez says.

Beside me, Fang stiffens. "It's Fang." Fang tells him.

"Fang?" he looks at the roster, "Oh, yes, okay."

More names are called.

"Maximum Ride." The teacher calls.

I raise my hand, "It's jut Max señor."

He nods, continuing the name list.

Class is normal first day of Spanish review type stuff: seeing what we remember from previous years, what we never learned, what we forgot, etc..) My mom is Mexican and lived in Texas near the boarder nearly all her life, so I've grown up hearing a lot of Spanish, and sometimes when she gets mad she says phrases in Spanish, so I know _a lot_ of Spanish if you know what I mean. Anyway, the first day of Spanish is super easy, and I feel disappointed when the bell rings.

Iggy asks, "What class do you have next?"

"AP English." I answer.

"Nice. That's a legit class-or at least that's what I've heard. I'm lucky to make it into an honors class-not that I did this year. Good luck." he says.

Fang walks over as Iggy walks away. "What class do you have?" he asks.

"AP English. You?" I reply.

"Same." He answers.

I pull out the map and we barely make it to class on time. AP English has the same beginning as Spanish, only this time I'm excited to start the class. We start with a writing prompt. We have to create a hero character for a project we're going to start this week. My character is a seventeen year old girl with jet black hair and dark, emerald green eyes. She has a fiery spirit and is everything I want to be: nice, calm, interesting, loveable, and fun, but also, completely hard-core, tough, doesn't back down from anyone and doesn't give a crap about the negative things that other people say about her.

When the bell rings, Fang and I compare schedules again. I'm not sure why we keep pairing up like this, there's just something about him that makes me drawn to him, like some sort of unknown magnitude about him.

* * *

**Fang**

It turns out Max and I have almost every class together today with the exception of third block. She has culinary class then and I have AP Art. Yup, I like art. There's something therapeutic and calming about art that helps me to feel at ease instead of so messed up all the time. Anyway, I notice there's something different about Max. For one, she's one of the few people that I want to be around, for another thing, I feel drawn to her. I've never felt that way before. It freaks me out a bit because I hardly know her and I already want to be around her a lot. What if I get to know her more and she gets to know me more? Will she want to still hang around me if she finds out?

Anyway, there's this freaky red-headed girl wearing hardly any clothes trying to ask me out at lunch. I don't say anything, nothing to say. I'm hoping she'll just leave because she's squished herself tightly between Max and me and I hate people touching me at all. It's never a good thing when people put their hands on me at all. I look away, hoping she'll go away if I ignore her. Then I hear this squeal and I notice the red-head went from the bench to the floor. I look at Max and raise an eyebrow.

"What?" she asks.

I jerk my head to the red-head and look back at Max.

"Oh, that, that's no big deal. She tried to push me off the bench, but it didn't work out too well for her." Max shrugs.

The red-head mutters some rude names under her breath

"What did you call me?" Max questions.

The red-head starts speaking Spanish. Max starts doing the same thing. I speak Spanish relatively well, but I don't know what they're saying and I never exactly learned the extra-curricular words, so I can only imagine the English translation of their words.

Max laughs at something the red-head says. "Dude, that's not even how you say it." Max laughs.

The red-head huffs and stalks away.

"Nobody messes with Max." Max's sister Ella, informs us.

I smile inwardly, Max can definitely hold her own. Judging by the huge group surrounding by the red-head, most girls would have shied away from the red-head, but Max didn't. That's awesome.

The bell rings and we have to part ways for third bell. I love art and I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite classes. Of course, there's this tugging sensation in the back of my mind telling me that I want to get out of here and find Max. Part of me actually wants to listen to it. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Algebra 2 is my fourth block class. I'm happy to see Max again, of course I don't act like it. I act neutral like I always do. Math isn't my favorite subject at all, but it isn't so bad. It's actually quite amusing, especially when those brothers, Iggy and Gazzy sneak actual stink bombs into the classroom and they let them go off right in the middle of class. This causes the entire class to have to grab all our stuff and evacuate the classroom. Everyone already knew who did it, apparently the two brothers have a reputation for this sort of thing.

When the final bell rings for the day and everyone gets out of the school way faster than they came in. I make my way to the bus and see that Max beat me there. There are almost as many people as there were this morning, so I ask Max if I can sit next to her again. She says it's fine so we talk just like we did on the way to school. It's weird how quickly I've become accustomed to talking to Max when I hardly know her. I mean, I've only recently started to talk to my foster mom and I don't say much. I don't want to get off the bus again, but I have to when we get to the bus stop. We part ways and I'm surprised that I'm anticipating the next time we'll get to talk.

_What is wrong with me?_ I wonder as I walk home.

* * *

**Max**

As soon as we're out of earshot Ella asks, "Do you like Fang?"

"What? Of course not! We just met! Besides, I just broke up with Sam. Remember?" I say.

Ella grins. "I definitely remember that. He was an idiot."

"There's more to life than being smart." I give her a look. Ella never knew what Sam did but she still never liked him much. She has good intuition about people, but he was still my boyfriend, so I feel like I must defend him.

"Yes, but Sam was a stupid jerk, therefore a worse breed of idiot." my sister laughs at her joke. I can't help but laugh at her joke. Sam _was_ a stupid jerk and an idiot; Ella just doesn't know the half of it.

When we get to the house, Mom asks us a million and seven questions and Ella gives her a million and five answers. Mom makes me answer some questions too.

Then of course Ella goes, "Max met a guy. She has almost all her classes with him."

Mom smiles, "Oh really? Well, I'd really like to meet this boy. Okay honey?" Mom says. She knows what happened with Sam and she doesn't want it to happen again.

"Okay." I agree.

Then Angel comes in the house and I notice that we've been talking for around an hour or so. We all greet Angel with big hugs and lots of kisses on the head.

* * *

**Fang**

I get to the house feeling surprisingly good. It's an odd feeling that I decide to shake. It's pointless and probably won't last, so why bother allowing myself to feel good when I know it's just going to somehow be taken away? Anyway, I'm there by myself for a little while so I decide to draw a little before I do homework. I grab my notebook out of my bag and lie on the floor. I open the notebook and there's a bunch of writing. I frown, _This is not my notebook._ I think.

Then it hits me. This is _Max's_ notebook. That's why Iggy snickered when we dropped our notebooks. He knew I took Max's; which means that Max has mine.

_Oh. Crap._ I think.

My gaze falls back onto the notebook. I wonder what she wrote. I'm not normally a snoop but, I start reading the notebook. It isn't a diary, if it were then I would have stopped reading it, but like I said it isn't, it's just a bunch of stories. They're really interesting, but a lot of them are very sad. They all have characters who have abusive fathers or some sort of other kind of horrible circumstance. A few of them are about happy things like romance, but the further I get into the notebook, the darker the stories are. Some towards the end are just depressing. She has this thing nearly entirely filled up, so after stopping for dinner and homework, its midnight by the time I'm finished with it. There's no denying Max is a great writer, but it seems like Max has a not so happy past too.

* * *

**Max**

After dinner I start doing the very miniscule amount of homework the teachers assigned us. It's easy stuff: a review worksheet for Spanish, a free-writing assignment for English that we only need to start tonight, look over the recipes for culinary class, and absolutely nothing for Algebra 2. I also need my mom to sign a bunch of stuff, but I already got her to do that. When I'm done with my homework, I decide to write for a little bit. I grab my notebook and lie on a clear spot on the floor. When I open the notebook, I know right away that it is not mine. There are drawings all through it. I'm wondering who could have possibly made such beautiful drawings and how I could have their notebook in my possession Then I remember Spanish class. Fang had a notebook just like mine. When we dropped our notebooks, we must have taken each others by mistake. That's why Iggy was snickering; he knew we took the wrong notebooks.

Curiosity causes me to look through the notebook. Fang's drawings are all impressive. Some are sad. There's one where he drew himself in the rain, tears brimming his eyes, and a mixture of rain and tears dripping down his face. At the bottom of the page it says, _Forever alone._ It looks really sad. There are skulls, people fighting, violence, collages made of words, and lots of other drawings. Very few of them are happy. There's a few at the beginning of a girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes who kind of looks like Fang, only a girl. She's in multiple drawings, always smiling or laughing, sometimes with Fang. I look for more drawings with the girl, but they just stop in the middle of the notebook. There are three drawings that really stick out to me: the_ Forever alone_ drawing, one where there's a house broken to pieces, and then there's one with a sword through a broken and bleeding heart with the words: _Never love_ under it. His drawings are breath-taking and heart-breaking. It looks like Fang has a tormented soul too, but it seems like he's had to go on a rough journey all alone. It makes me wonder about his past.

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**Chapter 3 Preview:  
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**Fang**

I walk to the bus stop and when I get there I see a man harassing Max. He grabs her arm and attempts to drag her away but I scream, "Leave her alone!"

The guy stops for a second to look at me and Max yanks her arm away from the man's grasp. The man lunges for her but I jump on him, knocking him down. I've been fighting for years so even though the man is bigger than me, I have just as much chance at winning the fight as he does. The man pushes me off him and punches me in the stomach. My breath leaves and I think I make a sound like, "oof!".

"Fang!" Max screams.**  
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**So, how was this chapter? Did it completely suck? Was it okay? Please review! Reviews of all kinds are highly appreciated!**

**Thanks for reading.**

**~Kay~**


	3. Chapter 3: Father Troubles

**Fang**

I walk to the bus stop early, hoping I'll get to talk to Max alone for a couple of extra minutes but when I get there I see a man harassing Max. He grabs her arm and attempts to drag her away but I start running over to them and scream, "Leave her alone!"

The guy stops for a second to look at me and Max seizes the opportunity to yank her arm away from the man's grasp and jump a few steps away from him. The man lunges for her again but I jump on him, knocking him down. I've been fighting for years so even though the man is bigger than me and outweighs me by at least fifty pounds (probably more), I have just as much chance at winning the fight as he does. The man pushes me off him and punches me in the stomach. My breath leaves and I think I make a sound like, "oof!" as I double-over in pain.

"Fang!" Max screams.

* * *

**Max**

I leave for the bus earlier than Ella does as usual because I want to finally give Fang his notebook back. I've had it for nearly a month but I keep forgetting to give it to him. Plus, I like talking to Fang so I'm hoping he comes as early as he usually does. Then I see my dad's car. I blink, sure that I must be imagining it. Then of course my dad parks the car in front of me and walks to me.

"Come with me Maximum." My father orders.

I just stare, my eyes wide. _How did he get out of prison?_ I wonder, frozen in place.

"Maximum this is no time for games. We are leaving _now._" He says.

He tries to grab my arm to drag me away when I hear a voice screaming, "Leave her alone!"

My dad looks at the source of the voice and relaxes his grip for a moment which is all I need. I yank my arm away and move away from my dad. My dad lunges at me but then I see Fang jump on him, knocking him down. My dad pushes Fang off him and punches Fang in the stomach, causing Fang to double-over in pain.

"Fang!" I scream.

My dad punches Fang over and over until Fang falls down. Then he looks at me. "See what you did Maximum? This is your fault." He sneers.

Fang jumps up and punches my dad in the face. My dad tries to fight back but Fang is relentless this time. It's like Fang had been waiting for the right time to attack or something. I can't do anything except watch.

_Where did Fang learn how to fight? Will he teach me? Or will he even want to speak to me after this? Why is he defending me?_ I can't help but wonder.

When my dad gets a punch in, he plants it on Fang's nose. Blood squirts everywhere. It's awful. Fang keeps hitting at my dad but then my dad kicks Fang's feet out from under him and Fang falls down, hitting his head. My dad hits Fang in the head over and over and over.

"Fang!" I scream. Then I blindly lunge at my dad, pushing him away from Fang. "Enough is enough! You're mad at me, not him! Leave him alone!" I yell.

My dad looks at me, face full of fury and says, "Maximum, how dare you yell at me and tell me what to do. You have no right to do that. You are a failure. You were a failure when your brother died and you're a failure now."

"Ari's death wasn't my fault! Sorry I wasn't the son you wanted to replace him! Sorry I'm the daughter you never wanted! Now leave before I call the cops!" I scream, grabbing my cellphone out of my pocket.

My dad turns pale and says, "You would turn your own father in?"

"I've done it once, I'll do it again." I growl.

"Fine. I'll leave, but mark my words Maximum. I will be back and you will not like it. Nor will he." He gestures to Fang who's still unconscious, lying on his back on the sidewalk. "Neither of you will like what happens when I come back." My dad says.

"Go…now…" I say through gritted teeth.

My father gets in his car, gives me a rude hand gesture which I want to return but decide against it since that would just make it worse and then he drives away. I wait until he's out of sight and then I look at Fang. He's got a broken nose and some nasty cuts and bruises on his face. I can't help but wonder why nobody came to help. Is it normal for teenagers to get beaten to a pulp here?

"Fang?" I ask, sitting on the ground beside him.

He doesn't move.

"What happened to him?" a voice asks behind me.

I whirl around to see Iggy standing behind me, looking at both of us. I can't find any words to say.

"What happened to your arm?" Iggy asks.

I look at my arm; it's bruising already. "Long story." I manage to say.

"We need to get Fang to a hospital." Iggy says.

"No hospal." Fang slurs, stirring slightly.

"Fang?" I ask.

"Max?" He asks, opening his eyes.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper, feeling like I could cry but trying my hardest not to.

"Not your fault." Fang tells me, sitting up. He grimaces and rubs his head.

"Do you want us to call an ambulance for you?" I ask.

Fang shakes his head.

"But you might have a concussion." I argue.

"I'll just go to the school nurse." Fang shrugs.

"Dude, they'll just take you to the hospital." Iggy tells him.

"Sure, but this way I'll still have gone to school." Fang mutters.

"Max! The bus is here!" I hear Ella calls.

I look and sure enough the bus is here. _How long was I trying to wake Fang up before Iggy got here?_ I wonder. It felt like only a few seconds but it must have been a few minutes. I look at Fang. "Can you walk?" I ask.

Fang stands up and says, "Yeah, I'm good."

Iggy laughs at me. "Oh Max, you're so worried about him. It's kinda sweet." He says.

I glare at Iggy and glance at Fang who smirks at tiny bit.

"Let's just go to the bus before they leave us." I sigh, rolling my eyes.

Fang sits by me on the bus. "Why did you apologize?" He asks.

"That was my dad." I say, trying hard to keep my voice free of emotion.

"What was going on before I got there?" Fang asks.

"He was trying to make me go with him." I say quietly.

"Why?" Fang asks in an equally quiet voice.

"I turned him in for child abuse." I whisper, trying not to think about that terrifying day.

"Where did he go before I woke up?" He asks.

"He left in his car after threatening to do something really bad when he returns." I whisper.

"What's he going to do?" He whispers.

"I don't know; he just said that you and I won't like it."

"Are you going to tell someone?"

"I should probably tell my mom but I don't want to worry her."

"You need to tell your mom. Otherwise, he might hurt you again."

I look at Fang; it's like his dark eyes are looking directly into my soul. "Why did you save me?" I ask in a tiny voice.

"You're my friend and he had no right to treat you like that. Nobody does." He says.

"Thank you." I whisper, looking him in the eyes. "Nobody has ever helped me before."

"They should have and you're welcome." He replies.

"Do you want me to walk you to the nurse when we get to school?" I ask.

"No thanks. I'm going to class. I'll deal with myself later. What are you doing today after school?"

"Fang, that's dangerous. You need to get your head checked."

Fang smirks. "That would have sounded like an insult had you not sounded so concerned."

"Fine; don't get your head checked. See if I care." I say, unable to keep from blushing as I cross my arms over my chest.

"What are you doing today after school?" Fang asks.

Now it's my turn to smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Fang frowns at me. "Well that wasn't very mature." He comments.

"That's what I was going for." I grin.

* * *

**Fang**

Max explains the situation with her dad and I feel kind of bad for her but I also relate a bit with the dad being abusive part. She seems pretty shaken up from her dad trying to kidnap her only a few minutes ago. She thanks me for saving her and asks _why_ I saved her, (it was like she didn't think she was worth saving.) Then she asks if I want her to walk me to the nurse's office but I tell her that I'm not going to the nurse. I try to ask her what she's doing today after school but then she smirks at me and says, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Well that wasn't very mature." I comment, frowning at her, pretending to be mad.

"That's what I was going for." She grins up at me.

I just shake my head, smiling a little. I've never had a friend like Max. The closest thing I've ever had to a friend was my twin sister, Maya. Of course my dad had to destroy that one bit of light in my life. Now Max's dad is trying to destroy Max's life. Even though I've only known Max for a little less than a month, I still want to stop her dad from making that happen.

* * *

**Well, that's it for this chapter. Sorry it took so long to write it but here it is at last.**

**Please review and thank you for reading!:)**

* * *

**Preview for Chapter 4:  
**

**Fang**

Max looks serious for a moment and I raise an eyebrow.

"Can you teach me how to fight?" She whispers.

Her question surprises me. "Why do you want to know how to fight?" I whisper.

"So I can protect myself from him when he comes back." She whispers, a little fear in her eyes that I don't want to ever have to see again.

"I'll teach you how to fight." I promise.

"Thank you." Max says, looking relieved.

"There's also something you should know." I tell her.

"What's that?" She asks.

"I'll also be there to protect you." I promise.


	4. Chapter 4: Explanations Part 1

**Max**

Fang, Iggy and I walk to class together as we've become accustomed to and we sit where we always do. Iggy goes to join some of the before school classroom chatter, leaving Fang and I to do whatever we want.

"Oh yeah, before I forget. Here you go." I say, handing Fang his notebook.

"Thanks." Fang says, smirking a bit at me simply because he'd returned mine weeks ago but I kept forgetting to give him his back. Fang looks through his notebook and stops at the first bookmark I'd placed. He looks at me an raises an eyebrow, keeping his expression neutral except for that one eyebrow.

"It was one of the ones that stuck out the most to me. There are a few of them like that since so few are happy." I explain. This is the picture where he has the heart that's broken with the words, "Never love" written underneath it.

Fang nods and looks at the other ones. He flips to another book-marked page and smiles a tiny bit. He seems sad though. He shows me the picture. It's the one of the girl and him smiling, they both look really happy. "This is my twin sister Maya. Or at least it was her. She's dead now." He says quietly.

"What happened?-If you don't mind me asking." I ask.

"This isn't a good place to tell such a long story. Do you have any plans for after school?"

"Not that I know of."

"How about you come over. We can exchange explanations and then I can start teaching you self-defense. Okay?"

"Okay." I agree.

The bell rings and class starts. The rest of the day goes by unbearably slow. I'm ready to burst by the time we get to the bus.

_Finally! _I think. _This was officially the_ slowest_ day of school _ever_!_

Fang sits by me as usual and we make small-talk during the half-hour drive to the bus-stop. I text my mom on the bus and tell her where I'm going. She seems a bit concerned that my friend's name is Fang but that seems to be her only worry because she trusts me and knows I'm not going to do something stupid.

When we finally get off the bus I really am bursting with questions, but I force myself to be patient because I know I wouldn't want to be bombarded by a bunch of questions by someone, even if that someone is a friend I talk to everyday.

Fang and I say bye to Ella, Iggy, Nudge and Gazzy. Then we walk to Fang's house. His house is very nice-looking. It's a cheerful little two story brick house with beautiful flowers planted all over the yard.

As soon as Fang opens the door, a lady who I'm guessing is Fang's mom greets us with a smile. "Hi Fang. Who's this?" She asks.

"I'm Max." I tell her.

"Oh so _you're _Max. Oh don't be weirded out, I've asked Fang a million questions everyday about whether or not he made friends and how he likes the school. Don't worry, he didn't say anything bad." She smiles at me. She's really friendly.

"Is it okay if I take Max to the balcony?" Fang asks.

"Oh course sweetie, have fun. Oh wait, do you two want a snack?" She asks.

"Do you want a snack?" Fang asks.

"Um, sure; thanks." I say, feeling kind of nervous. I don't like making decisions of any kind. I can thank my dad for that. If I didn't answer right away I would get beat. Mom never knew though. He would always hit me where nobody could see the marks. I won't go swimming because of all the scars.

"There's some ice cream in the freezer or some brownies that are almost done, or if you just want some candy there's a huge box in the cabinet. You two can take it upstairs and finish it off if you'd like." She offers.

"What type of candy?" I ask. (I have the biggest sweet-tooth ever.)

She takes the box down and hands it to me. I look in it and see packs of Skittles, Reese's cups, various hard candies and lots of different chocolate candies like Milky Ways, Snickers, Baby Ruths, Hershey's chocolate and even Three Musketeers.

"Come on Max." Fang says, smiling a bit. Then he looks at his mom and says, "Thank you."

"Thank you!" I echo as I follow him up to his room. It's all black and grey in there. The walls, floor, carpet and blankets on the bed are all black. The furniture is greyish silver color. One of his walls is conpletely covered in his drawings. They're all beautiful and kind of sad.

Fang opens the doors to the balcony and we sit together on the balcony-couch, eating the candy.

"Okay, the first thing you should know is that isn't my real mom. She's my foster mom. She runs the adoption-center, nobody wanted me, she felt bad and took me in this year." Fang says.

"What happened to your real mom?" I ask.

"She's a drug-addict and she got pregnant when she was sixteen so she didn't want me or my twin sister Maya. My dad was arrested because he was already eighteen when my mom got pregnant and my mom left Maya and me at an orphanage. We were adopted by a really nice couple but when the wife died in a car-crash that Maya and I survived, the husband became an alcoholic and started beating my sister and me. He was drunk all the time and he would hit us and cut us and sometimes even burn us. He said nobody would believe us if we told anyone or if we tried to get help because he said we're bad, good for nothing kids. He was usually worse to me except for one night when he just started beating Maya and hitting her and cutting her. H-he cut her too deep, he hit her too hard. She d-died a few hours later. I-I tried to save her but I couldn't do it." Fang sniffles as tears gather in his obsidian eyes.

"I tried so hard to save my sister but I couldn't. I just-I couldn't. I tried but I failed. I let the only good thing in my life die. It's my fault she died because I couldn't save her. She was so young. She was only eight." He finishes, his voice no more than a broken whisper.

He looks like he's about to cry so I hug him tightly and stroke his dark, shaggy hair saying, "Shh, Shh," I don't know what else to tell him. It's not like I can tell him it's okay because it isn't. His sister's gone and nothing will change that. I feel my shoulder become wet immediately and I can feel Fang shake with silent sobs.

After a minute or two of sniffles Fang pulls away and says, "Sorry."

* * *

**Fang**

After telling the story about how Maya died I start crying. I never cry-especially not in front of people so crying in front of Max felt so very wrong. She just hugs me and says, "Shh, Shh," over and over as she strokes my hair, letting me cry into her shoulder.

After I regain my composure I pull away and say, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault." Max whispers. "You were only eight. Who told you it was your fault?"

"Mr. Sullivan." I answer, my voice thick from the stupid tears. I wish I didn't cry in front of Max. She must think I'm weak, I just hate thinking about how Maya died and how I couldn't save her. I let my twin die. I'll never forgive myself for that.

"He was the man that beat you; right?" Max asks.

I nod, not sure where she's going with this.

"It was his fault your sister died; not yours. He hit her; you didn't. You tried to save her." Max tells me.

"I tried and I failed." I mutter.

"You tried though; that's all that matters. It isn't your fault your sister died." Max tells me.

I look at her, she really wants me to believe her and I want to believe her too; I just don't know if I ever can.

"Chocolate bar?" Max offers, holding a Hershey's bar out to me.

I can't help but smile, she's must be trying to be really nice since she called all the Hershey's bars.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. I hope you all liked it!:) Thank you for reading this story and don't worry it will get happy, I just need to have Max and Fang explain their pasts to each other or else the story won't make sense later.**

**Thank you everyone for reading this story. Special thanks to all of you who have reviewed this story! It always makes my day whenever I get a review!:D**

**Please review and tell me what you think!:D**

**Thanks again for reading!**

* * *

**Here's a sneak peek to Chapter 5:**

**Fang**

"What's your story?" I ask.

"I was supposed to be a boy; that's what my dad wanted. I was born to either replace or save my older brother Ari. Since I ended up being a girl, my dad expected me to save my older brother. I went through surgeries all the time because my brother always needed blood or bone marrow or a kidney or something. My dad had my younger sister Ella just in case I failed. My dad was happy so he wanted another kid just because so my parents had my little sister, Angel. My brother died when I was eleven because his body didn't respond the right way to one of the transplants." Max explains.

_Poor Max, she_ couldn't_ save her sibling either. _I think.


	5. Explainations, Dares and I've Nevers

**Fang**

"What's your story?" I ask.

"I was supposed to be a boy; that's what my dad wanted. I was born to either replace or save my older brother Ari. Since I ended up being a girl, my dad expected me to save my older brother. I went through surgeries all the time because my brother always needed blood or bone marrow or a kidney or something. My dad had my younger sister Ella just in case I failed. My dad was happy so he wanted another kid just because so my parents had my little sister, Angel. Then my brother died when I was eleven because his body didn't respond the right way to one of the transplants from me. Dad says it's my fault Ari died." Max explains.

_Poor Max, she couldn't save__ her sibling either. _I think.

"My dad started hurting me a week after Ari died. He'd elbowed me in the face and said it was an accident. I believed him until a lot of 'accidents' started happening. It seemed unreal because he's my dad, he should be helping me, not hitting me. I guess he never really thought of me as his kid. I mean, I don't look too much like him anyway. I'm glad I don't think I look like him. Did you think I looked like him?" She says.

I shake my head. He was bald and had a dark mustache, she had dirty blonde hair. He had crazed blue eyes full of fury, she had chocolate brown eyes full of kindness. He was overweight, she was thin but not too thin but she isn't fat either-she's perfect. Um for her height I mean. Anyway, Max looked nothing like her father.

"I'm glad you don't think I look like him, considering the fact that you two got into that fight." Max says, sounding a bit relieved.

"Even if you looked exactly alike, your eyes would still be different." I say, surprising both Max and myself.

"What do you mean?" Max asks.

"Your eyes would still be different because his are cold and full of hatred but yours are warm and full of kindness." I explain.

Max blushes and I mentally punch myself in the face for being stupid. _Way to go Fang. _I think. _First the tears and now that weird attempt at a complement? Are you trying to scare her away?_

"At least your foster mom didn't notice your black eye." Max says, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, I've never been so grateful to a make-up carrier in my life." I agree.

"Yea, who would have thought Nudge would be prepared for such an occasion?" She laughs.

"That was weird. I just hope Ms. Monroe doesn't give me the boot for getting into a fight. A lot of people don't take things like that lightly." I say quietly, thinking about the foster homes I was in and then kicked out of for defending myself because someone attacked me.

"She won't do that. She seems to really care about you." Max tries to reassure me.

_More like she feels sorry for the poor, unwanted boy who was abandoned by his mother, hated by his father and lost his sister._ I think skeptically.

"I'll talk to her with you if you want. You know, to further legitimize your story." Max offers.

I shake my head and then ask, "Do you have a cell phone?"

"Uh, yeah, why?" Max asks, looking confused.

"I was wondering if I could have your number." I say, trying not to sound nervous.

_Dude! Get a grip! She sees you as a friend and nothing more! That's how you should view her too! She could never care about you! _A voice shouts in my mind. Well, it's not wrong. Max couldn't care about me because she's awesome and fun. Unlike me, I'm unwanted, too quiet and boring.

"Sure." Max hands me her phone and adds, "The number's on the home screen."

"Do you want my number too?" I ask.

Max smiles at me. "That sounds good. Can you add yourself to my contacts?"

I add Max to the contact list on the phone Ms. Monroe gave me. She said it had unlimited text and talking minutes so I guess I'll actually put it to use now. Then I add myself to Max's contacts.

"You can call me if he comes back." I tell her quietly, handing Max her phone. "Or you know, if you just wanna talk."

"Thanks Fang." Max smiles at me. "You know, it works both ways. If you just wanna talk, feel free to call."

"You're welcome and thank you Max." I smile back at her. I don't smile too often, but in the small span of time I've been around Max, I've smiled nearly every day. She gives me a reason to smile and I hope I get to stay here.

Max's phone starts to play a song and the name 'Ella' flashes across the screen.

"I need to take this; sorry." Max says.

She answers her phone. "Hello?"

Max looks bored. "Yes, I know him." She says.

Max's eyes go so wide they look ready to pop out of her head. "You what?" She gasps.

"Did Angel see?" She asks.

"Oh that's nice. Well, you get to explain it to her or maybe you should just have Mom explain it to her." Max says.

_What are they talking about?_ I wonder.

"Did you at least enjoy it?" Max asks.

_Enjoy what?_ I wonder.

So here is what I'm picking up from the conversation: Max's younger sister Ella did something with a boy and it sounds like Max's youngest sister was involved somehow.

"Really? Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it because you're gonna have to wait for months until you can do it again. Anyway, I'm at Fang's house so I need to go." She says.

Max's face turns red. "What? No!" She hisses.

I've never heard a more confusing conversation in my life.

"By the way, Fang heard this whole thing." Max informs Ella.

"No I'm not going to lie to him about this. He's gonna find out soon enough anyway so what difference does it make if I tell him?" She says.

"Gotta go. Bye Ella." Max says and then she hangs up.

She looks at me and I raise an eyebrow.

"Well, my six year old sister Angel dared Iggy to kiss Ella. They're all at my house playing Truth or Dare and it was Iggy's turn so Angel dared him to kiss Ella and Iggy did it. Then Nudge dared Ella to kiss Iggy so the two kissed again. Then Gazzy told the two lovebirds to get a room. So, yeah...That's what that was all about." She states.

I chuckle, _of_ _course_ Iggy kissed Ella for a dare. He's wanted to kiss her for weeks. It was pretty obvious. Everyone knew they liked each other, (except maybe the two of them.) "I'm surprised Nudge didn't play matchmaker sooner than your little sister did." I comment.

"Yeah, the only problem is that my mom has this rule where we can't date until we're sixteen and Ella's only fifteen. She and Iggy will have to wait a few months before they can date." Max says.

"So they have a bit of a Romeo and Juliet scenario going; huh?"

"Yeah, but I'd like to think that Romeo would have the guts to kiss Juliet because he felt like it, not because of a dare made by a six year old."

I chuckle and Max laughs.

"This is off-topic but you're your ringtone?" I ask.

"Oh, it's a song called 'Be My Escape' by a band called Relient K. It's been my favorite song since we moved here." She replies.

"It sounded pretty cool." I tell her.

"Knock knock." Ms. Monroe says.

"Hello." Max and I say at the same time.

Ms. Monroe takes one look at my face and asks, "Oh Nick-I mean Fang, what happened to you?"

"It was my fault. My dad tried to kidnap me at the bus stop this morning and Fang saved me." Max explains.

Ms. Monroe looks at me and asks, "Is that true?"

"Yes ma'am." I answer.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you! Good boy Fang! You saved your little friend!" Ms. Monroe hugs me and I shoot Max a shocked look and she just covers her mouth to hide her laughter. People don't generally hug me so, I don't know what to do when I'm being hugged. Max gestured for me to hug Ms. Monroe back so I do.

Ms. Monroe pulls away and says, "Well, I'll just leave you two kids alone. Have fun."

"What do you wanna do now?" Max asks.

"Do you wanna play Never Have I Ever? It's like Truth or Dare without the ridiculous dares." I suggest.

"That sounds cool. Funny enough I just downloaded an app for that this morning." Max says, taking her phone out again.

"Do we wanna raise our hands if we've done the stuff?" I suggest.

"How about we eat a piece of candy instead?" Max grins.

"Okay, you can read it first." I agree, smiling back at her.

"Never have I ever been suspended from school." Max reads with a small frown.

We both eat a candy.

"What did you do" I ask.

"Some idiots were messing with Ella outside of school one day so I taught them a lesson." Max shrugs.

"I thought you wanted to learn self-defense." I say.

She blushes. "I mostly just wanna learn a few fighting moves that you know but I don't." She admits.

"That's fine. I'll still teach you." I tell her.

"Thanks. What did you do?" She smiles a tiny bit.

"I don't look very big or strong now but I looked even scrawnier when I was twelve so, one day some senior tried to beat me up. It didn't work out too well for him. He looked worse than I did by the end of the fight so I got suspended and he didn't." I explain.

"Yikes. Your turn." Max hands me the phone.

"Never have I ever played with fire." I read.

Max eats another piece of candy. I can't help but smirk at her, _of course_ she's played with fire because doing something that normal smart students do is so not Max.

"What? It's not the first time Ella invited Iggy over." Max says sheepishly.

I keep smirking as I hand her the phone. "Your turn."

* * *

**Max**

I read the next one and think,_ Oh, what nice memories._

"Never have I ever hit someone in the face." I read aloud this time.

We both take a chocolate, looking at each other solemnly as I hand Fang the phone.

"Never have I ever blackmailed anyone." He reads.

I eat a candy and Fang smirks at me again.

"You've done everything. You're gonna have a stomach ache by the time we're done." He tells me.

I take my phone and push the button so I can read the next one. "Never have I ever talked to a dead person about my problems." I read, taking a cautious glance at Fang.

Fang eats half a piece of candy and then he chucks the other half over the railing. "I believe she's in Heaven so she's not really dead. She's living on, but she's not on Earth anymore." He says softly.

We both know who he's talking about: Maya, his dead twin.

"Your turn." I say softly, putting the phone in his hands.

"Never have I ever thrown a stone against a window." He reads.

We both silently eat a piece of candy, neither willing to tell that story just yet.

I take the phone and read, "Never have I ever ran away."

Fang silently takes a piece of candy and gestures for the phone. "Never have I ever shaved my face." He reads and then shoves a Milly Way into his mouth.

I smile at him and take the phone.

"Never have I ever eaten anything with mold on it." I say. Then I eat a piece of candy.

"It was blue cheese-my mom made me eat it!" I blurt out.

Fang's still smirking as he reads the next one, "Never have I ever been skydiving."

Neither of us take a candy.

"I wish I could, I'll bet it's like flying." I say wistfully.

"Yeah, that would be pretty sweet." Fang agrees, passing me the phone.

"Never have I ever been kissed in the rain." I say, feeling my face begin to burn with blush. I don't dare look at Fang but he hasn't taken a candy either. Then of course it starts pouring down rain.

_Hacing fun up there big guy?_ I think to God. (Yes, I'm a Christian if you're wondering.)

Fang and I run into his room, being sure to take the candy with us. We go back to how we were except when I hand Fang the phone he's looking at me with a really intense look that I don't understand. I just look down, waiting for him to read the next one.

"Never have I ever showed the finger to another car driver." He reads.

I eat another Hershey's and smile sheepishly at Fang, noticing that he isn't eating a piece of candy.

"Really?" He asks, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I'm not as quiet and sweet as I act around the teachers at school." I admit.

"I'm starting to pick up on that." He grins, "How many times have you done it?"

"Three times while I was driving and I've lost count of how many times I've done it when my mom was driving. Ella might know though." I grin at Fang.

* * *

**Well, this chapter's over. Sorry for the long wait. I know I'm not very consistent, I just have a million and one things to do right now and sometimes I don't have any ideas.**

**Thank you for reading! Please review!**

**Anyway, here's ****a sneak peak to next chapter:**

* * *

**Max**

Fang looks at my phone. "So Ella knows huh?" He grin at me and there's something about the way he's looking at me that looks...mischievous.

"Yeah, she probably knows." I say slowly, trying to figure out why he's looking at my phone that way. Then it hits me but Fang's already standing up.

"No! Fang! Give me my phone!" I say, jumping up.

Fang shakes his head and runs out the door. I follow him and we race down the stairs, being sure to slow down when we pass Ms. Monroe. Then I run after a laughing Fang in the rain, trying to keep up so I can get my phone back.


	6. Chapter 6: Almosts, Make up's and Nevers

**Max**

Fang looks at my phone. "So Ella knows huh?" He grins at me and there's something about the way he's looking at me that seems...mischievous.

"Yeah, she probably knows." I say slowly, trying to figure out why he's looking at my phone that way. Then it hits me but Fang's already standing up.

"No! Fang! Give me my phone!" I say, jumping up.

Fang shakes his head and runs out the door. I follow him and we race down the stairs, being sure to slow down when we pass Ms. Monroe. Then I run after a laughing Fang in the rain, trying to keep up so I can get my phone back.

"Fang! Give me my phone!" I yell.

He turns around, running backwards and yells, "Come and get me!"

Then he trips over the curb, landing flat on his back in the grass.

"Fang!" I scream, suddenly worried about him. Then of course I trip and land right on top of him because nothing less awkward could have happened _right then_.

Oh yeah, while Fang and I are staring at each other with wide eyes we hear laughter and not just random laughter from a stranger, oh no, it's much worse than the laughter of some random stranger. We hear Iggy's laughter.

"Well, this is a truly beautiful sight. Although I have to say, I saw it coming." Iggy laughs.

**(NOTICE: Iggy has really bad eyesight so he has to use glasses to see but he isn't technically blind.)**

I start blushing, feeling completely mortified and roll off Fang. Then I steal my phone back.

"Sorry. Are you okay?" I ask.

He nods and stands up. This is when I realize we landed in my yard and that everyone is looking at us through the windows. I glare at them all through the windows and the blinds suddenly go down for a mysterious reason.

"We're never gonna hear the end of this." I state, looking at Fang.

He smirks at me. "Well lets give them something to talk about." He says in a mysterious voice with a strange look in his eyes.

"Wha-" I start but I'm interrupted by the intense look Fang is giving me.

"Hey no, you two had your chance, you're not doing that now!" Iggy yells, still laughing. He gets in between Fang and me, separating us.

I can't help but feel disappointed but I'm not sure why. Fang keeps his eyes locked on mine and says, "I gotta get home. Later."

"Later." I manage to say.

* * *

**Fang**

I walk home with a stupid grin on my face. _I almost kissed Max and I think she was gonna let me. I was so close to doing it. Why Iggy? Why?_

Then when my brain starts to function properly I start panicking. _Oh crap! I almost kissed Max! I can't kiss Max. We're just friends and she probably wants to keep it that way. We just met; why did I try to kiss her? Stupid! Stupid! _Stupid! _What am I supposed to do now? How can I face her again? Deep breaths Fang, breathe, breathe. Okay, just text her and say you thought it would be fun to additionally freak everyone out and that you figure we should just stay the way we are...Even though I really wanted to kiss her in the rain, because she said she never had ever been kissed in the rain. I think I'll leave that last part out. There you go Fang, now you have a plan; even though you already know that you won't get any sleep tonight._

Then I look back towards Max's house and have a crazy idea that might make up for me leaving her to be interrogated by the others.

* * *

**Max**

As I suspected earlier, I'm being bombarded with questions about my nonexistent secret relationship with Fang. Naturally Iggy came crashing through the house screaming and laughing about what he saw. Bad Iggy, _bad_. Fortunately my mom wasn't home yet otherwise there would be the suspicions from not only my sisters and friends but also my mother. I would not be able to take her questions, especially since she let me go to his house for the first time today. Although I kinda wish my mom were here right now because then Iggy would be attempting to be polite and suck up to her, so he would not be running through the house.

I somehow manage to escape Nudge and lock myself in my room, hiding until they all leave. Fang left me here all by myself to deal with the questions; my hero-not.

Then I get a text from Fang.

**Having fun?**

**_Yes, I love being questioned alone about something that everyone assumes involves an additional person besides just me._**

**Sorry about that. I just figured if they were gonna go crazy, we might as well give them a legitimate reason. Ya know?**

**_Fair enough. But you are not forgiven for leaving me here to be questioned._**

**Okay. I'll make it up to you.**

**_How?_**

I hear a tap on my balcony window. I jump up, grab my knife from under my pillow and slowly open the curtains to see Fang staring at the knife in my hand with wide eyes. His face turns white and he starts shaking as soon as he sees the knife.

"W-w-why d-do you have a kn-kn-kn-knife?" Fang stammers, backing away from me. He looks so scared. I suddenly want to protect him somehow; hug him maybe but that won't really help right now.

I put the knife in a drawer and say, "I thought you might be an intruder. I didn't know it was you."

Fang looks very shaken up, probably thinking about how his sister died and how his foster dad always cut him up with knives.

"Sorry for scaring you. Come on in." I tell him.

"Are there any other knives in your room?" He asks.

I nod and Fang goes rigid.

"Do you wanna hang out on the balcony instead?" I ask. (My balcony has a portion of the roof over it so we won't have to worry about getting anymore wet than we already are.)

Fang nods.

"So, what did you wanna do to make up for misleading everyone and then leaving me to be interrogated?" I ask, trying to change the subject as I close the door to my room.

"I thought we could play another riveting game of Never Have I Ever." He says, holding out his phone. "I just downloaded the app."

I grin at Fang. "Sure. Do you wanna raise our hands this time?" I ask.

Fang pulls a plastic bag full of Hershey's fun-sized bars and says, "Nope."

My grin gets wider and this time Fang grins at me. "You wanna go first?" He asks.

"Nah, your phone, you can go first." I reply.

"Okay. Never have I ever got teen a tatoo." Fang reads.

I take a Hershey's and Fang raises an eyebrow. I roll my eyes and show him my tatoo of a heart with wings on the right side of my right heel. On the heart there's a scroll with the words: 'Fly on' written in midnight blue.

"Sweet. Why does it say 'fly on'?" Fang comments.

"It means go forward and don't worry about the past. I kinda made it up." I explain.

"That's a good saying." Fang says, handing me the phone.

I read it in my head and feel myself blush. _Why do I always get the embarrassing ones? _I wonder.

"Never have I ever been given flowers." I read, blushing more as I pass Fang the phone.

Neither of us take a chocolate and I really don't know why I care about this sort of thing. It's stupid. I guess it just bothers me that it's another example of how the males in my life generally don't care. Well, I guess Fang seems to care a tiny bit, but that's even more of a reason for him not to care. Why would he care if so few have before him? Why should he be any different than the others?

"Never have I ever been kissed on the lips." Fang reads.

I take a chocolate and notice that Fang's face looks a little red.

"Not even once?" I can't help but ask, hardly believing it. Not to be weird but he's just so good-looking, I would have assumed he'd been kissed at least onespecially holy with all those girls at school who swoon over him.

He shakes his head and hands me the phone.

"Never have I ever eaten a bug." I read.

We both take a chocolate and I can't help but laugh.

Fang chuckles and I hand him the phone. "Never have I ever worn make-up." He reads.

Nobody takes a chocolate and Fang looks at me with this weird look. It's almost like there's a smile in his eyes, like he's happy about something but he doesn't want to show it.

"What?" I ask as he hands me the phone.

"You don't need it." Fang tells me.

I blush and I don't know hat yo say. I've never been told that by a boy before. I'm just plain, boring Max with the messy hair and boring brown eyes. I'm nothing special.

Fang's phone starts ringing so I hand it to him.

"Hello?" He asks.

"I'm at Max's house. Sorry. I'll tell you where we're going next time. It was. Spur of the moment kind of thing." He apologizes.

"Yes mam, it won't happen again, you will be fully informed right away." He promises.

"Yes, I'll come back right now." He says.

"Bye." He says, hanging up the phone.

* * *

**Fang**

"I need to go. Ms. Monroe didn't appreciate the sudden disappearance. I'll see you tomorrow." I tell Max.

"Okay. Thanks for coming over." Max smiles.

"Do you want to keep the chocolate?" I ask.

"Um, only if it's okay with you." She says uncomfortably.

"It's fine." I tell her, wishing she didn't always seem so uncomfortable when she's asked a question. I want to protect her from everything that dares try to hurt her.

Max brightens and smiles. "Thanks Fang." She says.

"You're welcome Max." I say with a smile.

"Later." She waves.

"Later Max." I say, jumping from her balcony. I'm both surprised and excited hen I land on my feet. I hope Max saw. I look up and she's leaning over her balcony, watching me to make sure I didn't just break something. I wave at her and grin.

She waves back and shakes her head but I can still see the smile she's trying to hide.

* * *

**Well, here's the new chapter. Sorry but there is no preview for the next chapter because it's all super top-secret (even to myself...). Anyway, thank youroot reading this fanfic and I'm sorry I can't update all the time but since school started I've had a million and five+ things to do. (Yes, it's supposed to be a weird expression.)**

**I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed this fanfic. It helps me want to write more. I'll even take negative reviews is that's what you all have to offer. If a chapter sucks completely, please tell me. It will help me improve as a writer.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!:D**


	7. Chapter 7: Oh crap What did I do?

**Okay, I should probably clarify a few things because some of you had some very good questions. I had chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 all be on the same day. Ms. Monroe was too focused on the fact that Fang had been hurt to think about the fact that Max had almost been kidnapped by her dad. Also, Max's dad isn't Jeb. In the book he would be more like Dr. Ter Borcht (minus the accent) with the being her "creator" who wants her dead because she failed to perform properly. Just thought I should clear that up. Jeb will show up soon but not in the usual way. Sorry for the confusion. On with the story!:)**

* * *

**Max**

It's been three weeks since my dad tried to kidnap me at the bus-stop and Fang saved me. I told my mom about it that night and she completely flipped out. She called the police, alerted Angel's, Ella's and my teachers, and everyone else she could think of. She told people at her work, she told our neighbors to watch out for a man who matches my dad's description and any vehicles that match his vehicle's description. It took hours of begging and pleading from my sisters and me before Mom decided we should still go to school and ride the bus.

It's been three weeks since Fang let me come over to his house and he's been inviting me over every day since. I think Ms. Monroe is really nice and she seems to realike are about him. I've mentioned this to Fang a few times but he said everyone else started out nice too so he's still skeptical about him staying there. I hope it becomes a permanent thing and she stays as nice as she is whenever I'm at the house.

It's also been three weeks since the front-yard-incident. I wish I could figure out exactly how I feel about Fang. It's all so confusing. I mean, I view him as a friend but I wouldn't have minded kissing him-in fact I think I would have _enjoyed_ kissing Fang. I think I would have liked it a lot. Anyway, I'm thinking of all these different thoughts as I stand at the bus stop, waiting for Fang. He finally walks over and he's wearing his hood over his head which isn't something he usually does.

When he stands next to me he stands further away than usual and he keeps his head down (also something he doesn't usually do.)

"Hey Fang." I say.

"Hi Max." He replies, not looking at me.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah." He says, still refusing to look at me.

I step in front of him and I can feel his whole body stiffen. I gently remove his hood and tilt his chin so he looks at me. I surpress a gasp. He has a black eye, a swollen lip and various bruises coat his face.

"Fang, what happened?" I ask gently.

"The guy next door attacked me." He shrugs.

"Just now?" I ask.

Fang nods.

"Did you fight back?" I ask.

Fang shakes his head.

"Why not?" I ask, keeping my hand on his chin.

"I didn't want Ms. Monroe to see. It's one thing to save you from someone but it's another thing entirely if I'm fighting a guy my own age." Fang answers.

"What happened exactly?" I ask.

"Ms. Monroe was trying to go to work and the guy and his friend wouldn't move out of the way for her to drive out. She asked them to move but they just laughed in her face. That pissed me off so I told them to just get out of the way so she could drive out. They laughed at me and continued throwing their stupid football. I took it and chucked it over the fence of the neighbor with the German Shepard. I'm sure you can guess what happened from there and I ran off so Ms. Monroe wouldn't kick me out for getting into a fight.

"What does he look like?" I ask.

A guy bigger than Fang walks up to us. "Hey I wouldn't be acting all tough like that unless you want to be beat up in front of your mother again." The guy says to Fang.

I look at Fang, silently pleading with him to let me hurt this stupid idiot. Fang looks amused but shakes his head. I make a pouting face and Fang smirks.

The guy has aquamarine eyes, a tan, and golden colored hair. He flashes me a too-white smile which I return with a scowl. Regardless of how hot he is, he hurt Fang and that's against the rules.

Then the guy has the nerve to say, "That's a pretty hot girl you have there. You let me have her and I won't beat the crap out of you in front of your mother anymore."

I grab Fang's arms right as he lunges for the guy. "He's not worth it." I whisper in Fang's ear.

"Are you gonna answer me freak?" The guy asks Fang and I'm tempted to let go of Fang and let him beat the guy up.

"She's my friend, not a piece meat. I'm not gonna barter her off just so you don't hit me." Fang growls.

"Well ain't that nice. What if she wants to be my friend too?" The guy says.

"In your nightmares." I retort, glaring at him.

"Believe me babe, you'll change your mind." The guy smiles at me again and it takes every ounce of my Maximum self control to hold onto Fang instead of decking the jerk myself.

A horn honks and the guy looks beind him.

"Later babe. Later freak." He says, walking to the car.

I wait until the car is out of sight and put my head on the back of Fang's shoulder, relaxing my grip slightly.

"What a jerk." I comment.

"You can say that again." He says, turning around to face me.

"Thank you for taking up for me like that." I say, looking at him.

Fang surprises me by wrapping his arms around me. "Thank you for making sure I didn't get myself in trouble." He whispers into my hair.

I hug him back. "You're welcome. I don't want you to get in trouble anymore than you do." I tell him quietly.

We let go kind of awkwardly and notice that the bus is coming. We walk over to it and board it, sitting next to each other as usual.

Naturally when we get to school, the guy has a lot of the same classes as Fang and me. We also learn tht the jerk's name is Dylan.

Okay, this is probably the creepiest moment in my entire life and it happens because Dylan moved here. I don't want to be around Dylan so I've been avoiding him all day which is hard to do when he follows me around the school all day. Then he comes up behind by the lockers and shoves me into mine, kissing me hard on the lips.

"Did you feel anything babe?" He asks, stepping back.

"Yeah, a lot of things. Did you feel this?" I punch him in the face three times, one for disrespecting me, another one for him beating Fang up, and another one for the way he talked to Fang.

* * *

**Fang**

It's been three weeks since the almost-kissing incident with Max. Part of me wishes I could have kissed her and that part resents Iggy. Then the logical part of me is glad Iggy stepped in and feels very grateful to him for intervening. I'm really not enjoying this inner-conflict.

Moving on, I'm walking down the hall and I see Max pressed up against her locker, kissing Dylan. How did I not see this coming? He's bigger, stronger, all the girls think he's hotter (their words, not mine), and he's the new captain of the football team. This is so typical I want to vomit. I feel jealous. It should be _me_ kissing Max. Not Dylan. I feel so angry that I storm into the boys' bathroom and punch one of the stalls.

When I leave the bathroom, I see Lissa and Brigid.

"Hi Fangy!" Lissa shrieks, prancing over to me. "Do you want to go out with me?" she ask.

I'm so frustrated and pissed that I actually say, "Sure."

"I knew you would see things my way." she says, skipping away.

_Why did I just do that?_ I wonder, mentlly kicking myself in the face. Then I can't help but think, _I wonder if this will make Max jealous. Hmmm..._

I'm not sure why I want to make Max jealous if I'm pissed at her right now. What kind of a friend is she? She saw the way that jerk talked to me. Was she not listening when he was talking about her like she was a piece of meat at the bus-stop this morning? Did she miss that? I avoid Max all day and refuse to sit by her on the bus.

She calls me at 7:00PM, then again at 8PM, and then she texts me at 9PM.

**_Fang? What's wrong? Why won't you talk to me? Are you okay?_**

**Like you don't know.**

**_No. I really don't know. Please tell me._**

**I saw you with Dylan.**

**_He threw himself on me! I punched him 3 times for it! You'll see the bruises on his face tomorrow._**

_Oh crap. What did I do? _I think.

**Oh.**

**_Yeah, oh is right. How could you think I could kiss him after seeing _****_the way he treated you?_**

**I just saw and overreacted. I'm sorry Max.**

**_It's okay. Just talk to me if you have a problem next time._  
**

**Max? Can I tell you something?**

**_Of course._  
**

**Lissa asked me out and I said yes.**

**_I thought Lissa treats Nudge like crap. Why would you want to go out with her?_**

**No, that's her twin, Brigid. Lissa actually treats people like they're people, not crap.**

**_Well in that case, I'm happy for you._**

**Thanks.**

**_I gotta go. Later._**

**Later.**

I groan, lying on my back on my bed. _Max is happy for me. She's not jealous and now I have to go out with Lissa. I don't want to date anyone except Max. I just hope Lissa turns out to really be nicer than her sister. _I think.

* * *

**Max**

Fang's now going out with Lissa. I'm immediately jealous because as much as I hate to admit it, I really wanted to kiss him that day when Iggy stopped us. I guess I don't blame Fang for going out with Lissa. Lissa's prettier and doesn't have such a messy past. I hope she's nice to him or I will break her pretty little face. Being a teenage girl sucks. I have a best friend who I want to kiss but now he's going out with someone else so now I need to be happy for him and make sure he doesn't know that I'm jealous.

* * *

**Well, that's it for this chapter. Thanks for reading it!**

**Thank you all of you who reviewed my fanfic. Also, when you do review, can ou sign in that way I can thank you properly for it? Please? I like being able to say thanks other than on here where eveyone can see cause now this is awkward...:D oh well, whatever works for you all.:)**

**Anyway, thank you for reading my fanfic. Please review! I like all types of criticism because it helps me write better!:D**


	8. 1 knife1 mental-breakdown1 hoody-swap

**Max**

The bus stop has become really awkward over the past few weeks between Fang and me. It's especially awkward at lunch. Not to mention the dirty look Lissa gives me whenever I'm walking to class with Fang. It's like she thinks I'm trying to steal her boyfriend or something. Well, I'm not trying to steal anyone; he was my best friend before he was her boyfriend. In fact, I'm going to try to make it less awkward between everyone by telling Fang that he can bring Lissa to our table today since he always sits with her and her friends at lunch. See? If I were trying to steal Fang away from Lissa then I would not be inviting him and her to sit with everyone at lunch.

"Hey." I say with a smile when Fang finally gets to the bus stop.

Fang has his hood up again and he's walking stiffly. _Oh crap, not again._ I think.

"What happened?" I ask quietly.

He shrugs stiffly. I go to lift his hood but he goes rigid and says, "Please don't."

His voice sounds strangled. There must be something really wrong.

"Why not?" I ask. Did he just sniffle? That can't be good.

Fang shakes his head and I gently remove his hood. He's bleeding-from cuts-that are from a knife-on his face. Fang's body is starting to shake a little as I reach into my bag and get out the first-aid kit. I put disinfectant on a rag and begin to gently dab at his cuts on his face. I look at his eyes, they're full of tears and he's trembling-everywhere. He's scared. He's so scared. I know why he's scared; I hate that he's scared and I especially hate the reason why he's so scared. I don't know the full story, but I know enough of it to hate it. The knife or knives remind him of his foster dad. The one who hurt Fang. The one who killed his sister.

I gently hug him. "Shh, shh, you're safe with me. It's all right. You're gonna be okay." I promise, carefully having us sit together on the sidewalk.

Fang's hyperventilating into my shoulder, shaking really hard.

"Shh, shh, it's all right. It's all right Fang." I tell him, rocking him. "It's all right." I repeat.

He isn't calming down any.

I gently take his face in my hands and look him in the eyes. "Fang, you need to calm down. Okay? It was Dylan who hurt you; not your foster dad. He isn't here. You're with me now Fang." I tell him in the gentlest voice that I can muster. "You're safe with me Fang. I won't let anyone hurt you. Not if I'm around. I know you've protected me before but now I'll protect you. It's your turn to be taken care of. Okay Fang?" I tell him in a soft, gentle voice.

He nods and a strangled whimper escapes his throat as tears begin to roll down his cheeks.

I hug Fang tightly and he clings to me for dear life, shaking everywhere, crying silently into my shoulder.

"You're okay. You're safe. I promise Fang, I promise you you're okay. I promise; you're safe. You're okay. It's okay. It's okay." I soothe, gently stroking his hair as I begin to rock him again. "Shh, shh, it's okay. You're safe." I repeat in his ear, rocking with him on the sidewalk.

* * *

**Fang**

Max holds me in her arms and lets me sob into her shoulder as she rocks with me on the sidewalk, saying soothing things into my ear, gently stroking my hair-no one has ever done that before. No one has ever really comforted me. I always comforted Maya when we were kids so nobody has ever been there to comfort me. Why on earth is Max doing it?

I hate crying but I can't help it. Knives scare me-scratch that-knives terrify me. Dylan had a knife, he cut me, just like my foster dad-just like my actual dad-only Max doesn't know that part. All Max knows is that my foster dad used knives to hurt me and kill my twin, that Dylan used one on my face today, and that she's holding a very terrified, sobbing Fang in her arms. I hate the fact that I'm the very terrified, sobbing Fang but I can't help it. I'm scared.

Max just told me that she would protect me. I'm supposed to protect her! Not the other way around! It was so kind of her to say that though. So kind and thoughtful, so...Max. If all she sees me as is a friend then that's okay. At least she cares at all.

I pull away and wipe my eyes with the heel of my hand. Then I see the blood which means...I look at Max's hoody. _Stupid blood. _I think.

"Sorry." I apologize. "For your hoody and for the mental breakdown."

"It's fine; it's just a hoody. I can buy another. You're a person and you were scared. It's not like I can be a bad friend and then go buy another one of you." Max says, poking me in the stomach to silently say she's kidding.

I crack a smile. Max always has that affect on me. Lissa doesn't. I hate sitting at that table with her and all her conceited friends. That just doesn't seem like a good reason to break up with someone though. I don't know how to break up with her. I've never broken up with someone before. I still haven't ever been kissed. Lissa has tried but I won't kiss her on the lips. I've kissed her cheek but not her lips. I don't know why, I just can't bring myself to do it. I think it's because I'm still hoping to save my first kiss for someone special, someone I can love, someone like Max...or hopefully Max herself. Pfft, I wish. She'd never like me that way, not in a million years-especially not after this.

"Here, take mine instead." I tell her, taking my hoody off.

"No, Fang, it's fine." Max starts, looking uncomfortable.

"Max, please take the hoody. Let me repay you in this way." I insist.

"You don't need to repay me." Max says.

"Let's just trade for the day. I'll wash yours and bring it back to school tomorrow." I suggest.

"Okay." She relents.

She takes her hoody off and I put mine one her. She looks beautiful. I want to let her keep it. She always looks beautiful, it's just the fact that she can look gorgeous in something that has to do with me that makes me want her to keep the hoody. Seeing her wear it makes me smile.

* * *

**Max**

I look at Fang, I'm glad he's smiling. I don't know why he's smiling at me but I'm still glad he's smiling. I haven't seen him smile in a long time. Maybe he smiles when I'm not around but I still haven't seen it in a while until now and I've been concerned for quite some time. I'd always steal glances of Fang and Lissa together at lunch. Lissa's always laughing and chattering away with her friends but Fang's just kinda beside Lissa, looking uncomfortable. That's how he looks every time I steal a glance.

"Hey Fang, how about you ask Lissa if she wants to sit with Gazzy, Iggy, Ella, Nudge and me?" I ask.

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea." Fang says.

I grab some bandages from the first-aid kit and gently place them on Fang's face.

"There you go, you're all patched up. Maybe you can even get Lissa to kiss them better." I joke, smiling so he doesn't know how much I truly hate the idea.

"If you're so concerned, why don't you kiss them better?" Fang jokes.

My eyes widen and I focus on putting away the first-aid kit so Fang doesn't notice my blush.

Although, I admit there's a small part of me that is tempted to kiss his cheek just to see what he would do. _No! Bad Max! Bad! _I scream in my head.

"The bus is here." Fang tells me.

I stand up and walk with Fang to the bus. Is it just me or his face flushed? It must be from him crying but it wasn't like that before.

* * *

**Fang**

After I get off the bus I say bye to Max and find Lissa at her locker just like I always do. "Hi Lissa." I say.

"Hi Fangy-poo." Lissa smiles.

I still don't get the Fangy-poo thing. Is she trying to tell me something or is it really just a stupid nickname? Also, how did she not notice my face covered in bandages? Does that not matter? Oh well.

I kiss Lissa on the cheek and hold her hand as we walk to my locker so I can throw my stuff in. "Hey, I was wondering if we could sit with my friends at lunch today. Does that sound okay?" I say.

"Why?" She asks, pouting. "Don't you like my friends?"

"They seem nice but that's exactly it. I've met your friends but you haven't met my friends." I say.

"Sure. That sounds fun. See you at lunch." Lissa says, planting a kiss on my cheek. She sounds so fake when she says it. So not real, so reluctant to compromise. She clearly doesn't care. I don't understand why she wanted to go out with me in the first place if she was just going to do this. Sure my conscience isn't exactly clear either but I just don't understand this girl. She's so fake; it makes me sick.

I walk to class and am grateful to sit by Max and attempt to concentrate while Iggy cracks jokes the whole time in Spanish 3.

"How'd it go?" Max whispers.

"She's coming." I shrug.

"Didn't she want to?" Max whispers.

"I don't think so." I whisper.

"Why not?" Max whispers.

"I don't know." I whisper.

"Sorry." She apologizes.

"Don't be." I whisper.

"I just thought it might lessen the tension; you know?" She whispers.

"I know. It's not your fault Max." I whisper back.

* * *

**Well, that's it for this chapter. Lunch will probably get its own chapter. I hope you all liked this chapter. Thank you for reading my fanfic!:D Special thanks to those of you who have reviewed my fanfic!:D**

**Please review and tell me what you thought about it!:D**


	9. Chapter 9: Lunch and Mission Impossible

**Max**

I can't believe that just happened. Seriously, I cannot believe what my eyes are showing me. It's just...screwed up to say the least.

* * *

**Fang**

I should have seen this coming. This really doesn't surprise me too much. I'm sure you're confused. Let me explain. I meet Lissa at lunch and lead her over to the table where Max, Iggy, Ella, Nudge and Gazzy are. They greet her and are exceptionally nice-even Max. Things are going good at first. Then Dylan makes a grand entrance into the cafeteria and comes to the table. He grins at me and winks at Lissa. She blushes.

_Why is she blushing?_ I wonder.

Then Dylan decides to make an appearance at our table. "Hey cutie, do you like the work I did on the loser's face? I think it's a big improvement." Dylan tells Lissa.

"If you can't tell, that girl is already taken Dylan. Go make someone else want to vomit." Max snaps.

_I love Max, she's so tough. Whoa, hold the phone. I'm not supposed to think like that. _I think.

_It's true though._ A voice in my head says.

_I'm not supposed to have a weird voice in my head either-only Max. She told me about hers once._ I think.

Anyway, Dylan smirks at Max. "Aw, did you want me to flirt with you too?" Dylan taunts.

"Sure, if you want another black eye." Max retorts, glaring at him.

"Sweetie, you said Fang did that." Lissa says.

Dylan turns red just as I blink. _Sweetie?_

"Sweetie?" Everyone gasps...well, except me.

"Yep." Lissa smiles at all of them. Then she smirks at me. "This is how you're supposed to kiss someone Fang." She kisses Dylan on the lips and they proceed to make-out.

There's movement from the other side of the table and I see Iggy, Ella, Nudge and Gazzy all trying to hold Max down.

"What is wrong with you?" Max demands, glaring at Lissa and Dylan as she tries to escape the clutches of our friends.

Lissa stops kissing Dylan and looks at me. "Nobody would want to go out with someone who gets beat up all the time and won't give them any real kisses. Besides, you're not even that interesting, you never talk and I only dated you because you look hot when you aren't covered in bandages. Later Loser." Lissa says, taking Dylan's hand, leading him to her table.

I never really liked her too much but...ouch. It still stings a little. It sorta reminds me of what the foster parents would tell me as they beat me.

I turn around and look at Max. She's watching me, concern written all over her face. "Do you want me to get rid of them?" Max asks.

I shake my head. "No, it's no big deal. I really didn't like her that much." I tell her.

"Okay, but if you change you're mind, feel free to ask." Max smiles, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

"So, what are we gonna do to get them back?" Iggy asks.

"Nothing." I say.

"Why?" Nudge asks. "They did something to hurt you so they deserve to be punished. It's like a law! You know that 'what goes around comes around' thing or the 'you get what you give' thing or a mixture of both. Right? We need to do something in retaliation or else we'll destroy the balance of the universe or something majorly important like that. Or we'll ruin the high school code of conduct: someone hurts one of your friends, you make them regret it. And mmph!" Iggy covers Nudge's mouth with his hand.

"Nudge, power-down. We're gonna do something now chill out. Cool?" Iggy tells her.

She nods even though we all know it's hard for her not to talk. That's why her mom put her on the debate-team.

* * *

**Max**

Fang says he doesn't want to get revenge for Lissa cheating on him with Dylan and Nudge uses her motor-mouth powers to say why we must get revenge and how it will destroy the balance of the universe or something dramatic like that if we don't. Anyway, Iggy makes her calm down and we all come up with a bunch of different ideas for revenge. I have my own idea but I want to discuss it with Fang privately. I'm not sure if he'd want to go for something like this.

After lunch...

The last period is taking way too long. I can't talk to Fang because he sits on the other side of the room but I can't really concentrate because I so desperately want to talk to Fang. When the bell rings I yell, "Yes!"

The whole class looks at me like I've gone insane but I really don't care. I quickly throw all my stuff into my backpack and Fang and I walk to the bus together.

The bus ride takes too long too. I can't suggest this idea in public. That would be bad and would totally ruin everything.

When Fang and I finally get off the bus Fang asks, "Do you wanna come over today?"

"Sure, let me just check with my mom." I reply.

I text my mom and she says she's fine with it. Of course she's fine with it-it's Fang. She met him and thought he was really nice and polite.

Fang and I sit on his balcony and he watches me for a while. I wonder if he wants me to talk first but I really don't know how to suggest this idea.

"You look like you're going to explode. It might help if you start talking so I don't have to clean the balcony later." Fang suggests, smirking at me, only half-kidding.

"Okay, I was thinking that for revenge we should pretend to date. Lissa wants to make you jealous and Dylan hates both of us. We already hang out a lot so it would be easy to fool everyone." I say.

Fang's quiet-more so than usual and I wonder if he can see my crush on him-but that's not why I suggested it! Well, maybe it's a contributing factor but still!

* * *

**Fang**

Max suggests we pretend to go out to for revenge against Lissa and Dylan. My logical side tells me that this is a good idea because Lissa was already very jealous of Max and Dylan hates us both. It'd be the best way to get under both their skin. The not-so-logical side is pulling a Nudge, making my thoughts quick and frantic. Watch:

_Why did she suggest that? Has she been waiting for Lissa and me to break-up or is this really just for revenge? This is probably just for revenge to Max-for now at least. For me this is my only chance to get Max to notice me as more than a friend. Maybe this will turn out great and I'll be able to have the guts to tell her how I really feel about her. Or maybe this will be a horrible thing that makes her hate me...I really hope it's option número uno or else I'm in big trouble._

I can assure you that no calm person thinks like that. Also, no calm person has an annoying voice in their head contributing to the frantic, two-sided thoughts in their head.

_This may be the only chance you get. Are you going to take it or are you going to leave it and regret it everyday? _The voice says.

_Great, fortune-cookie crap. That's always fun. _I think.

"That sounds like a good plan." I tell Max, glad that I sound calmer than I feel.

"Okay, so should we tell the others or keep this to ourselves?" Max asks.

"No, we should just keep this to ourselves. Where should we announce it?" I answer.

"We could just come to school and hold hands everywhere. Then I guess we just go from there." She says.

"You know that dance is coming up soon, right?" I ask.

"What dance?" She asks.

"Homecoming I think. We should make an appearance there. Let everyone see us together. That way there wouldn't be any suspicions." I suggest calmly even though I'm freaking out inside.

"Okay cool. Except, there's one problem." Max says.

"What is it?" I ask.

"I don't have a dress. Also, do you have a suit or something like that?" She asks.

"No, we're gonna need the others to help us with that so we're gonna have to convince them too. Unless you like dress-shopping?" I say, smiling when Max gives me a dirty look because of the last part.

"Yes we're gonna need their help because I don't like dress-shopping." Max says.

I laugh, leaning back against the chair.

"At least now we have a plan." Max says.

"Yeah." I agree. I have a plan too, it's top-secret so nobody can know about it-not even Max. My new mission is to get Max to fall in love with me. It's an impossible mission but I still have to try. Now that Lissa's out of the picture I can actually try to get Max to see me as more than just a friend. That's my new mission. Hopefully it isn't as impossible as I think it is.

* * *

**Okay, here's that new chapter!: ****I hope you all liked it.:D**

**Special thanks to anyone who reviewed last chapter and also to anyone out there who has read this fanfic from the beginning!:D**

**There's no preview to the next chapter but I can give you a clue as to what's gonna happen: clothes shopping! Dun dun dun! Max's worst nightmare. Yay!/Boo!**

**Thank you for reading this fanfic! Please review and give me some feedback. It can be positive or negative. I'm happy to receive either.**

**Thanks again for reading!:D**

** ~Kay~**


	10. Chapter 10: Only Exception

**Max**

"What about this one?" Nudge asks, holding up some pink frilly thing I would not wear in a million years-not even to save the world-like that would ever happen. Me? Save the world? That's funny.

Anyway, we're at the mall trying to get ready for the dance. If you're wondering, "we" consists of Nudge, Ella, Iggy, Gazzy, Fang and me. Everyone else has picked out some clothes for the dance but I have suffered through two hours of brutal, unsuccessful searching. It doesn't help that everything Ella and Nudge have given me to try on has been some frilly thing or pink.

I look at Fang, "I have to get out of here. Now." I tell him.

This is when I notice him hiding something behind his back. "What's that?" I ask.

"It's your gateway to freedom." He answers.

"Yeah right, let me see it." I say.

He shows me the dress. It's beautiful. It's a layered black and midnight blue dress. It's tasteful and I won't be showing too much skin but I won't look like a nun either. I actually like this one.

"Where did you find this?" I demand.

"Go try it on." He says.

I go to the dressing room and try the dress on. I love it. I look at the price; it's way too expensive. I groan in frustration and I take the dress off. I change back into my normal clothes and leave the dressing room.

"Do you like it?" Fang asks.

"Yeah but I'm not buying it." I say.

"Why not?" He asks.

"It's way out of my price range." I answer.

"Let me pay for it." He says.

"No, I can't let you do that." I say, shaking my head.

"It's fine. Let's consider it your early birthday present." He suggests.

"How'd you find out?" I ask, unable to believe he knows.

"Ella told me." He answers.

"Uh huh, when did she say it was?" I ask doubtfully.

"She said it was October 21st which is in three days." He answers.

Crap, he isn't lying. I look at the ground and shake my head.

"Please don't." I say.

"Why not?" He asks, gently cupping my chin, lifting my head up so I have to look at him.

How can I tell him that my last group of friends never gave a crap and treated me like dirt? How can I tell him that the first guy I've ever called my boyfriend was a jerk? Would he still want to talk to me? I'm unwanted by people who are supposed to like me-by guys who claimed to love me: my dad, Sam, my uncles, my aunts, my grandparents; they all hated me.

No words come out. I just shake my head.

"Max, you can tell me anything. You know that right?" Fang says quietly.

I can tell him anything? Does he mean it? Nobody's ever told me that before. Why should he?

I nod.

"Then why won't you tell me what's bothering you?" He asks softly.

"I'm not used to guys being nice to me." I whisper.

"I know and they're all jerks but I'm not a jerk Max, let me prove it to you." Fang says quietly gently putting both his hands on my cheeks.

I stare up at him, holding back tears.

"Oh Max." He whispers, wrapping his arms around me.

I hug him back and rest my head on his shoulder. Fang really isn't a jerk. He's the only decent guy I know except maybe Iggy too, but Fang was the first. He's my best friend and I'm afraid he might go away.

* * *

**Fang**

Max won't let me buy her the dress that I know she loves. I try to coax the reason out of her but she refuses to look at me and keeps shaking her head. I cup her chin, carefully tilting her head up, making her look at me. She just shakes her head, her chocolate eyes refusing to fully meet mine.

"Max, you can tell me anything. You know that right?" I say quietly.

She nods.

"Then why won't you tell me what's bothering you?" I ask softly.

"I'm not used to guys being nice to me." She whispers.

My heart hurts for her. It's so easy to forget that she's gone through a load of crap from her dad-and clearly some other guys who were important to her life-because she always acts like she's okay. You would never guess that she has so many scars-mental and physical. She's the strongest person I know. It's one of the things I love about her-her resilience and her fighter's spirit-among other things of course, like her quick wit, her smile, her ability to force people into being themselves around her, the fact that I can tell her anything and she always listens.

"I know and they're all jerks but I'm not a jerk Max, let me prove it to you." I say quietly, gently putting both hands on her cheeks.

She stares up at me, there are tears in her eyes.

"Oh Max." I whisper, wrapping my arms around her.

She hugs me back and rests her head on my shoulder.

* * *

**Max**

Fang strokes my hair, holding me in his arms. I hug him tightly, just needing him for some reason. Then the song, "Only Exception" comes on by Paramore.

I look up at Fang. Maybe he can be the exception to the list of guys I've known who have hurt me. Fang smiles down at me and I smile up at him. Yeah, he is the only exception.

* * *

**Fang**

I smile down at Max, hoping she'll smile back. She does and I'm glad, I hate seeing her upset.

Then we hear someone behind us. "Whoa, what are you two doing?"

"We're hugging Iggy. Get over it." Max says.

I chuckle and let go of Max so we can see what Iggy wants.

"What do you want Iggy?" I ask, turning to face him.

"I was just wondering when you were gonna stop the charade and ask the girl out." He replies.

"I asked Max to the dance, we're going together. I already bought the tickets." I say, remembering Max's plan.

"Yeah right." Iggy laughs.

"No he did. Now enlighten us, have you asked my sister to the dance yet?" Max asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

Iggy turns red and says, "Fine, you guys win this round. Let's get out of here and get lunch. Unless of course you two wanted some alone time..."

Max smacks him upside the head, "Let's go." She says, walking to Gazzy and the girls.

I lag behind and grab the dress. I hurry over to the counter, pay for it and jam it into my bag with my clothes before Max notices. I hope she's surprised when she finds out...I hope she doesn't kill me.

* * *

**Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you all like it. Sorry it took so long!:(**

**Thanks reading my fanfic. special thanks to those who reviewed my fanfic!:)**

**Review of all types are welcome! Please tell me what you thought about this chapter.**

**Thanks again for reading!:D**

**~Kay~**


	11. Chapter 11: Confused

**Fang**

After we leave the mall Iggy drops Gazzy, Ella and Nudge off at Nudge's house. Then he drives us to Max's house.

"See ya!" Iggy calls as Max gets out of the car.

"Bye Max." I say.

"What? No sweetie pie?" Iggy asks.

"Sweetie pie isn't something you call Max." I say.

"Well then what do you call Max?" Max asks.

"I'm not sure yet." I admit, smiling sheepishly at her.

"Be sure to tell me when you know." Max tells me.

"I'll tell you first." I promise and we share a less than playful stare.

Max drops the stare. Then she smiles at both of us and waves as she walks into her house.

"You're drooling." Iggy reports.

"How can I not?" I ask quietly, knowing I'm just supposed to say enough to play the part but finding myself unable to refrain from saying this.

"What's the situation with you two?" Iggy asks.

I shrug putting on an impassive face. "I'm still figuring that out myself." I admit. This is true.

"What's the story with Dylan?" He asks, nodding at Dylan with his head.

"Dunno. I kinda hate him though." I answer.

"That makes sense considering how he's a jerk." Iggy says, watching Dylan flip us the bird as he crosses the street.

Iggy politely makes the gesture back at him. (Courtesy seems to be Iggy's primary policy.)

"Aren't Dylan and Lissa dating?" Iggy asks.

"Yeah. I don't know why I ever went out with her. We never dated, we just walked around the school holding hands everywhere. It was stupid." I admit.

"Are you sure it wasn't her hotness that convinced you to ask her out?" He asks.

"No, she asked me out. I don't know why I said yes." I reply. "Plus, aren't you just supposed to think Ella's hot?"

"Well, you're with Max now so you're good." Iggy says, wisely changing the subject.

"Yeah." I say quietly.

"See ya later." Iggy says as he drops me off at Ms. Monroe's house.

"See ya." I reply, grabbing my bag on my way out.

I unlock on the door and go up to my room. Ms. Monroe's still at work which is good because I need to think. After I carefully hang Max's dress up, I stare at it, wondering what she will look like in it. I get my sketch pad out and start attempting to draw her. My drawings never seem to give her any justice. Her nose seems too big or her lips look stupid in the pictures, I can never get her smile right or even her death glare.

Twenty failed attempts later, I toss my notebook onto my bed and sit on my balcony, right by where Max always sits. I stare at the chair reserved for her and can't help but wonder what I'm doing. How I can get so hooked on a girl. Why am I putting myself in this position? I've laughed with this girl, I've cried in front of her. I've allowed myself to become weak when I'm around her. Why?

I guess the answer is a simple one: it's because of Max. With any other person, nothing good would happen. It would be completely different if she weren't Max but, I understand her and I think she understands me too. She's the first person to stand up for me since Maya and the first person I've ever completely broke down in front of-not even Maya ever saw me cry. I feel like I can show Max everything I feel-except for my feelings for her. I can't show her them, I just know everything will go wrong. It'll just blow up in my face. It has to. I'm worthless and she's great. I'm weak, she's strong-she's the strongest person I know. I love her but, she can't possibly love me.

I gaze up at the stars and think about Maya, my poor twin sister who died far too young. She used to be the only one I could talk to even after she died, I just stare up at the stars and know that she's smiling down at me. Sometimes I write letters to her instead. Since Max loves writing and I need to talk to Maya about Max, I decide to write a letter to Maya.

**_Hey Maya,_**

**_I miss you sis, I'm sorry I let Mr. Sulivan killed you. How's Heaven like? I hope it's great up there. You deserve the best._**

**_I'm writing you today about whether I should tell Max how I really feel about her. I just...I love her. Can you believe that? I've fallen in love. I sure can't believe it. How'd I get into this mess? Not that Max is a mess...More like I am and I don't want to drag her into it...Even though I sorta already did. She knows about you. I hope you don't mind. She found out about you because she saw my drawing notebook. We sat by each other on the first day of school and we'd both dropped our notebook. Turns out they were identical so Max accidentally took mine and I accidentally took hers. I didn't know it was hers when I got home that day and I opened it to find stories where my drawings should have been. They were short and some were happy but the further into the notebook, the more sad and depressing they became. She looked through my notebook that night too and saw all the drawings. We both realized that night that the other had a very unhappy past._**

**_We started talking after that and it turns out her dad had been abusive and that's why they moved here. He even tried to kidnap her at our bus stop one day. I ran over and tried to help but he knocked me out. I woke up and her dad was gone. Max was leaning over me, looking...worried and concerned. That was the day I knew I was in trouble because of her. I knew from the bginning that I was falling hard. I think it's because she's different than other people I've met. She's kind and funny and weird and fun and intelligent but she can also defend herself, she has a backbone, she always speaks her mind and she's unconditionally herself. Those are just some of the qualities that make her so great._**

**_Then there's this one dude, Dylan, he's a huge quarterback on the football team, and he lives next door to me. He beat me up one day, Max saw the aftermath and if looks could kill then Dylan would have died when he came over to our bus stop to gloat. Then I saw Dylan kissing Max in the hallway that day and I panicked. There's this girl, Lissa who's kinda a snob, she asked me out and I said yes hoping to make Max jealous. Turns out, I didn't stay long enough to see Max punch Dylan in the face. Boy did I feel stupid._**

**_A few weeks later Dylan cornered me and cut my face with a knife. It hurt and it scared the crap out of me because it reminded me of Mr. Sullivan and our dad and all the other caregivers who gave nothing but pain and misery. I was scared Maya, so scared. When it was finally over I put my hood up and walked to the bus stop, trying to act like it was no big deal. Somehow Max could sense that there was something wrong and she gently lifted my hood up and saw all the cuts and the tears in my eyes and my fear-she saw it all. I was shaking and about to start sobbing and I did and I hated every minute of it but she just hugged me and promised to make it better-that I would always be safe as long as she was with me._**

**_Funny enough when we got to school Lissa who was my girlfriend at the time had a very different reaction. She didn't give a crap. Why did my best friend care but not my girlfriend? That question was answered at lunch when we found out that Lissa was cheating on me with Dylan. Was I surprised? Not really, I kinda figured something would happen, and I didn't care too much about it simply because _****_I only dated her to make Max jealous (which didn't work by the way) so my moral compass wasn't exactly pointed North either._**

**_Max came over after school and proposed a plan that would make Lissa and Dylan's blood boil: Max suggested we pretend to date. Of course I loved the idea because now I have a chance to hopefully give her a reason to fall in love with me. I hope it all works out but the thing is, Max was hurt by lots of guys who were supposed to love her or at least care about her. She's only told me about her dad but I kinda think there were others, especially when she said that she isn't used to guys being nice to her._**

**_This was brought up when I offered to buy Max this dress I knew she loved. We'd been at the mall for two hours and I knew she was dying-Max isn't exactly a dress-shopping kind of girl. Her eyes lit up when I showed her this midnight blue and black layered dress but she left the dressing room and said it was too expensive. I offered to pay for it (I make money by doing odd jobs around the house like cleaning out the gutters, helping make Ms. Monroe make posters for her work, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming the whole house, things like that) but Max didn't want me to. She didn't want to tell me and I told her that she can tell me anything and I asked if she knows that. She nodded and I asked what's wrong and she said that she isn't used to guys being nice to her. I told her that I'm not like those guys because I'm not a jerk and she just looked up at me, tears gathering in those chocolate eyes that I love so much. I hugged her and she rested her head on my shoulder. I got these weird feelings in the pit of my stomach that make the closeness between us both exhilarating and terrifying. Anyway, our friend Iggy invaded the scene so we let go then I snuck off to buy the dress. I know Max will look beautiful in it...I just hope she doesn't kill me for it._**

**_Anyway, I really need your advice. I don't know what to do. I love her and she's my best friend. I'm so confused._**

**_Love,_**

**_ Fang_**

I look at the letter I've written and can't help but wonder what Maya really would say about this if she were here. She was always a little romantic because of all the Disney movies we saw before everything went wrong.

"Knock knock." Ms. Monroe says.

I look up to see her standing in the doorway. She frowns and looks concerned.

"What's wrong sweetie?" She asks.

I feel my face with my hand-it's wet this is also when I notice that tears have splashed onto the letter. I thought it was rain.

"Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking." I tell her. This is when I notice that it's dark already. "How long have I been out here?" I ask.

"I don't know, I just got home." She tells me.

"It's 6:00PM already?" I ask.

She nods.

"I got back at 4:00 I was out here for two hours." I say.

"What were you doing out here or so long?" She asks.

I tense up, only Max knows about the letters to Maya. I can't tell Ms. Monroe.

"I was just thinking about Max. I really care about her but I'm worried we'll just be friends forever." I say quietly, only telling half of the truth.

"Ah, girl troubles." She says.

I nod.

"You should tell her you know." She says.

"Why?" I whisper. "She probably doesn't feel the same way."

"How do you feel about her?"

"I love her."

"Then you should tell her."

"I can't."

"Why not sweetie?"

"She's Max. She's the strongest, kindest, most fun person I know. She's the best person I know and she's so strong and I can't tell her because I'm none of those things."

"Sweetie you can't say that about yourself, I've seen you two together, you are both crazy about each other. Tell her. At least think about it; okay?"

I nod. "I'll think about it." I say quietly.

"Good. Are you hungry?" She asks.

I nod.

"Let's go get some dinner. We can go to new restaurant that just opened." She suggests.

"Is it the Blazing Steakhouse?" I ask.

"Yes. How did you know?" She asks.

"My friend Iggy, his parents own the restaurant so he's gonas cook there. He's a great cook." I answer.

"Is he the one who you said was really good at creating explosives?" Ms. Monroe asks.

"Yes, he and his brother Gazzy are great with explosives, but Iggy is also a great cook." I answer.

We leave the balcony and Ms. Monroe notices the dress.

"Is this for Max?" She asks.

"Yeah, how did you know?" I ask.

"You said the dance was coming up and you also mentioned that Max doesn't like dresses very much. Also, your outfit matches the dress." She answers.

"You're like Sherlock Holmes." I say.

"Being around children leads to a mastery in the art of deductions." She jokes.

I smile at her, she's cooler than all the other caregivers, but I'm still worried, they were all nice at first too-until I messed up.


	12. Chapter 12: Surprises

**Max**

I walk through the door and into the kitchen, hoping to steal a cookie. Instead of cookies I find my mom standing in the kitchen making cow eyes at some tall guy with sandy hair. I think he has glasses too but I can't tell from here.

"Hi Mom." I say uncomfortably.

She turns around and I think she's blushing. I'm shocked. If you knew this woman, you would be shocked too.

"Max, this is Jeb." She says.

"Hi Max, it's nice to finally meet you." Jeb says, putting his hand out.

"Hi." I say quietly, cautiously shaking his hand. He's a man, I don't get along with those.

"Jeb and I knew each other in high school and we ran into each other right after everything blew up at home. He helped us move into our house-he even painted you and Ella's and Angel's rooms." Mom says.

"Oh, thank you." I say awkwardly to Jeb.

"He's also staying for dinner so you girls can properly meet him." Mom adds.

"Okay." I say, trying to smile politely at Jeb. It probably just makes me look sick.

"Excuse me." Mom says, leaving me in the kitchen with Jeb.

"So, how do you like it here?" Jeb asks.

"It's pretty cool." I shrug.

"Have you made a lot of friends?" He asks.

"Surprisingly, yes." I reply.

"Surprisingly?" He asks.

"Yeah, I don't make friends easily. I'm quiet and anti-social. My sisters aren't like that at all though. They're really friendly and sweet." I explain,

"Then it's a good thing I get to meet you first; that way you have more time to warm up to me." He smiles. He seems nice-but so does my dad when you first meet him.

I nod and look down.

"So what's your favorite subject in school?" He asks.

"Creative Writing." I reply.

"Oh yeah, you're the one writing a book, right?" Jeb asks.

I nod.

"What's it about?" He asks.

"It's a secret." I reply.

He nods and doesn't say anything.

"So, what do you do for a living?" I ask.

"I'm a cop." He replies.

"Do you like being a cop?" I ask.

"It's a good job and I get to help people so yeah, I like being a cop." He replies.

"Was that your first career of choice?"

"No, I used to want to be a scientist."

"Why aren't you one then?"

"My life made an expected turn and I was offered a job here as a cop so I took it."

"How did you meet my mom again?"

"I used to live by where you all lived so I was visiting."

I nod, satisfied with the answers he gave me to my questions.

Mom comes back into the room. "You two didn't kill each other while I was gone. Can I take this as a good sign or were you two just about to start?" Mom jokes.

I smile, "No Mom, we were actually getting along."

"Where's Ella?" Mom asks.

"She's at Nudge's house." I reply.

"Oh okay, I like that girl. She's very chatty but also very sweet." Mom says.

"That's Nudge." I shrug with a smile.

"You have a friend named Nudge?" Jeb asks.

I nod.

"Why is she called Nudge?" He asks.

"I honestly have no idea. It's her nickname. Her real name is Monique." I answer with a shrug.

Later...

We eat dinner with Jeb and then he leaves. Mom looks like a teenage girl getting her first kiss when he kisses her on the cheek. Mom closes the door and leans against it, smiling up at the ceiling, then of course she sees me and realizes I'm spying. She blushes, "Max!"

"Yes?" I ask innocently.

She just shakes her head, too embarrassed to talk.

* * *

**Fang**

Ms. Monroe insists upon talking to me about Max all through the car ride to Iggy's parent's resturant, all through dinner and all the way back to her house. When we get there I have a great idea. I ask Ms. Monroe if I can leave for. While and she says it's fine as long as I get back by 7:30PM. It's only 5:30PM so I have plenty of time.

* * *

**Max**

I head up to my room and hear a knock at my balcony door. I grab a knife and cautiously open the door. Fang turns pale at the sight of the knife and he has something behindhis back. I put the knife down.

"Hi." I say.

"Hey, I have something for you." He says.

"Really? What is it?" I ask.

He holds a bag out and takes out that dress from before. He bought it anyway. I look from the dress to him to the dress and then to him again. I don't know what to do, then I hug him.

"Thank you Fang." I whisper, near tears. It's not the fact that I know have something toswear to the dance, it's just the fact that he cared enough to buy it for me.

"You're welcome Max." He says, hugging me back, stroking my hair.


	13. Chapter 13: Dance Drama

**Max**

It's been a few days since Fang and I have been "dating" and tonight is the dance. I have a confession that I highly doubt will shock you: I've never been to a school dance. So I'm actually really nervous. The great Maximum Ride nervous? I know, it's pitiful. It's all Fang's fault, if he hadn't been sweet enough to buy me this gorgeous dress, and I didn't have to pretend to be his girlfriend, I wouldn't be in this terrible situation...Wait, I came up with the idea about pretending to date so technically I share blame as well...crap.

Anyway, here I am all dressed up for the dance, waiting with Ella for Iggy to pick us up.

"Max, are you sure you don't wanna wear any make-up?" Ella asks for the fiftieth time. It was a nice gesture at first but I got tired of her asking the same question after the tenth time. Now I'm refraining from strangling my well meaning but at this moment annoying sister. See what stress does to me? It's terrible.

There's a knock on the door and I fling it open to see Fang waiting on the other side. He looks well, really good. His shaggy hair is combed out of his eyes and he's wearing a black suit with a midnight blue tie that matches the color of my dress.

Ella runs out the door to Iggy's car and Fang and I sorta just stare at each other.

"You look beautiful." He says.

"You don't look so bad yourself." I reply.

We don't say anything for a bit.

"So, what have you been doing since school?" He asks.

"Getting ready, avoiding Ella's make-up attacks." I answer.

"So I'll bet you were very happy to see me." Fang smirks.

"You have no idea." I say. "I hate make-up attacks." I shudder.

Fang smiles. "You don't need it."

I look down so Fang can't see me blush.

"Shall we?" Fang asks, holding his hand in front of my face.

Iggy honks the horn impatiently.

"Looks like we have to." I reply.

Fang holds my hand and I blush, his hand is relly warm; I like it.

The car ride is terrible but that's only expected when Nudge is in the car going on and on about all these guys she wants to ask her to dance.

"We should have walked." I whisper to Fang.

He smiles and nods.

The dance really isn't too much better. Especially when we're greeted by Lissa and Brigid. They're wearing matching pink strapless dresses that look far too low cut and far too short for a school dance but I guess you get away with looking like that when your Daddy's the principal of the school.

"Hey Fangy, do you think you could give me a second chance? I'm really super sorry." Lissa says in a pouty voice.

"No thanks, I'm here with Max, my girlfriend." Fang says calmly.

Lissa looks outraged. "How could you choose her over me? What does she have that I don't?" She demands.

"Where do I start? Um, she has the decency to not show up practically naked to a school dance." Fang retorts.

Lissa turns as red as her hair and I have to bite my tongue not to laugh.

"Come on Max, let's go dance." Fang says, leading me off to the dance floor.

"Fang?" I whisper.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"I can't dance." I say.

"Me neither, this should be fun." He chuckles, amused.

I just laugh at our predicament. Oh well, it's not like either of us give a crap about what most of the people here think.

* * *

**Fang**

The dance is great. Max and I are showing off our horrible dancing skills and laughing it up together. Then the DJ starts calling for volunteers to sing a song and guess who skips over to the stage? Lissa.

She skips up there and says, "This song is for a special boy who will always and forever be my Fangypoo."

"Well this should be interesting." Max comments.

I just groan.

"I'm going to be singing 'Want You Back' by Cher Loyd." Lissa announces.

"Not this song." Max groans.

"It's terrible isn't it?" I ask.

"Very. Just wait." She answers.

Lissa looks right at me and starts singing:

"_Hey, boy you never had much game,_

_So I needed to upgrade, _Dylan walks on stage and poses

_So I went and walked away-way-way,_

_Now, I seen you been hanging out_

_With that other girl in town _Lissa points at Max

_Looking like a pair of clowns, clowns, clowns_

_Remember all the things that you and I did first?_

_And now you're doing them with her?_

_You got me-got me like this_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_And everywhere we went-come on!_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_You got me-got me like this_

Lissa skips off stage over to Max and me. Max clenches her fists.

_Boy you can say anything you wanna_

_I don't give a shh _Lissa puts her finger to my lips and I take a huge step back.

_No one else can I have you_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back_

_I broke it off thinking you'd be crying_

_Now I feel like shh looking at you flying_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back_

Lissa starts skipping around Max.

_Please, this ain't even jealousy_

_She ain't gotta thing on me_

_Trying to rock them ugly jeans-jeans-jeans_

_You clearly didn't think this through_

_If what I've been told is true_

_You'll come crawling back like boo-hoo-hoo_

_Remember all the things that you and I did first?_

_And now you're doing them with her?_

_You got me-got me like this_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_And everywhere we went-come on!_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_You got me-got me like this_

Lissa steps in front of me and keeps trying to shove herself against me while I awkwardly move away.

_Boy you can say anything you wanna_

_I don't give a shh_

_No one else can I have you_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back_

_I broke it off thinking you'd be crying_

_Now I feel like shh looking at you flying_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back_

_Oooh, oooh, I thought you'd still be mine_

_When I kissed you goodbye uh-oh-oh-oh_

_Oooh, oooh, And you might be with her_

_But I still had you first uh-oh-oh-oh_

_Yo_

_Remember all the things that you and I did first?_

_And now you're doing them with her?_

_You got me-got me like this_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_And everywhere we went-come on!_

_And now you're taking her to every restaurant?_

_You got me-got me like this_

_Boy you can say anything you wanna_

_I don't give a shh_

_No one else can I have you_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back_

_I broke it off thinking you'd be crying_

_Now I feel like shh looking at you flying_

_I want you back I want you back_

_I want-want you want you back"_

By now Lissa is back on the stage, her routine over and says, "I want you back Fang. Don't you want me back?"

"No." I say, shaking my head.

Then Lissa goes way too far and tries to kiss me. I jump out of the way and Lissa falls into the punch because the food table was conveniently behind me. Everyone laughs except for Lissa who shrieks in anger.

"Fine Fang! Be that way! You know I'm better though because I sang a song for you and Max didn't! I'll bet she sounds lousy anyway!" Lissa yells.

"Please, you sounded like a cat getting ran over by a lawn-mower. I've heard Max sing and she sounds way better than you do." I say.

"Really? Did you hear that Max? Why don't you go prove it?" Brigid says.

"Fine, I will." Max says, marching up to the stage.

I walk over by the stage and smile at her. She smiles back and says, "Hi everyone, I'm up here because my awesome boyfriend ran his mouth and got me challenged to a sing-off." Max smirks at me. "Remember Lissa's uh interesting performance? Well, that's my competition. I'm gonna sing 'Give Your Heart a Break' by Demi Lovato."

I start applauding.

Max laughs, "Thank you Fang."

Then she starts singing:

_"The day I first met you_

_You told me you'd never fall in love  
But now that I get you  
I know fear is what it really was_

Now here we are  
So close yet so far  
Haven't I passed the test  
When will you realize  
Baby, I'm not like the rest

Don't wanna break your heart  
Wanna give your heart a break  
I know you're scared it's wrong  
Like you might make a mistake  
There's just one life to live  
And there's no time to wait, to waste  
So let me give your heart a break, give your heart a break  
Let me give your heart a break, your heart a break  
Oh yeah, yeah

On Sunday you went home alone  
There were tears in your eyes  
I called your cell phone, my love  
But you did not reply

The world is ours if we want it  
We can take it if you just take my hand  
There's no turning back now  
Baby, try to understand

Don't wanna break your heart  
Wanna give your heart a break  
I know you're scared it's wrong  
Like you might make a mistake  
There's just one life to live  
And there's no time to wait, to waste  
So let me give your heart a break, give your heart a break  
Let me give your heart a break, your heart a break

There's just so much you can take  
Give your heart a break  
Let me give your heart a break, your heart a break  
Oh yeah, yeah

When your lips are on my lips  
And our hearts beat as one  
But you slip out of my fingertips  
Every time you run, whoa-oh-whoa-oh-oh

Don't wanna break your heart  
Wanna give your heart a break  
I know you're scared it's wrong

Like you might make a mistake  
There's just one life to live  
And there's no time to wait, to waste  
So let me give your heart a break  
(Let me give your heart a break)

'Cause you've been hurt before  
I can see it in your eyes  
You try to smile it away, some things you can't disguise  
Don't wanna break your heart  
Maybe, I can ease the ache, the ache  
So let me give your heart a break, give your heart a break  
Let me give your heart a break, your heart a break

There's just so much you can take  
Give your heart a break  
Let me give your heart a break (your heart), your heart a break (a break)  
Oh yeah, yeah

The day I first met you  
You told me you'd never fall in love

Iggy jumps up on stage, takes the microphone from Max and asks, "So, who did you all like more? Lissa?"

He waits for the applause and only a few people clap, namely Dylan (who is currently dating Brigid now), Brigid and Lissa.

"Who likes Max?" Iggy asks.

Everyone cheers.

"Thank you." Max says.

Gazzy steals the mic from Iggy and yells, "In your face Lissa!"

Lissa gives off an angry shriek and storms off, followed by Brigid and Dylan.

Max jumps off the stage and grins at me. "That was fun."

"You did great. You sound like an angel." I tell her. It's true.

"Thanks." Max says, blushing a little.

Ella and Nudge run over to us.

"Max that was amazing! I got it all on video and I think I'm gonna put it on YouTube because you sounded really great so you might get discovered. You should sing more often because you're relly great! Can you perform at the other dances too? Because if you did that would be really awesome! And mmph!" Nudge says as Iggy puts his hand over her mouth.

"Nudge, breathe." Iggy says as Nudge removes his hand from her mouth. Then he turns to Max, "You did really great Max."

"Thanks." She says.

Then a slow song comes on and Nudge squeals, "Oh my gosh! I love this song!"

"Nudge do you wanna-" Gazzy starts.

"Yes! Oh my gosh! Yes!" Nudge says, dragging Gazzy to the dance floor.

"Poor Gaz." Iggy muses.

"Why poor Gazzy?" Ella asks.

"Because he doesn't get to dance with you." Iggy replies, leading her to the dance floor.

"He read all those cheesy love novels Ella gave him. They have greatly altered his personality." Max comments.

"That seems to be the case. Or maybe love changed him." I say.

"Have you been watching Oprah?" She asks.

"No. It was just an idea." I say, laughing. _I think love is changing me because I love you Max._ I think.

* * *

**Well, there's the dance. No worries, there's lots more surprises and twists coming up. Anyway, thanks for reading my fanfic and special thanks to those who reviewed the last few chapters!**


	14. Chapter 14: Mom Call

**Max**

The weeks after the dance drive by without much action-minds out of the gutter people-I simply mean that nothing much has happened lately. It's been the same repeating schedule over and over: talk to Fang at the bus stop, go to school, get stared at by everyone when Fang and I walk down the halls, go to lunch, sit by Fang, endure more stares, walk to the bus at the end of the day with Fang, sit by Fang on the bus, and go hang out with Fang at his house because that's the only place we don't get stared at constantly. Then of course there's Iggy who is convinced that Fang and I spend every second we have alone making out. Funny enough we've actually never kissed at all so no one's ever seen it, so we're stared at all the time and it's really creeping me out. Even Fang notices after a while and he doesn't give a crap about what other people think about him so he must be equally disturbed by the staring.

I find this out when Fang and I are at his house and he asks, "For the act, do you think we need to kiss or something to make it seem more convincing?"

I can feel my face turn red enough to put a cherry tomato to shame and shrug as I stare at my shoes, not daring to look at Fang.

"Fang! I have something to tell you!" Ms. Monroe says, opening Fang's door to see us sitting together in an awkward silence on the chairs on his balcony. She stops short when she sees me. "Oh, hi Max." She says, smiling at me.

"Hi Ms. Monroe." I smile.

"Sweetie, can you go downstairs for a little bit so I can tell Fang something. Okay dear? It's really important." Ms. Monroe says.

I glance at Fang who meets my eyes with a blank expression, then a confused expression a moment later, then a tad bit of fear and then the blank expression quickly replaces it. He does this at school when he doesn't want anyone but me to know what he's feeling.

"Okay, I should probably get home and do homework anyway. See ya Fang. Have a good day Ms. Monroe." I say, getting up to leave.

**Fang**

Ms. Monroe makes Max leave and I stare at the floor. Important things told to me by an adult are never good things-or at least for me they're not. They're good things for the adult usually because they mean the adults get to get rid of me. I have this annoying, uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that makes me want to throw up but I can't because Ms. Monroe would be mad if I puked on the balcony's nice tile floor.

"Fang, your mom called. She wants you to stay with her." Ms. Monroe tells me.

_What? _I think, utterly shocked even though I don't show it on the outside. I glance at Ms. Monroe; her expression is solemn. In the time I've been around her, she's never looked so serious about anything before-except when she was telling me to be careful around Dylan-but that doesn't really count. I grit my teeth and continue to stare at the black tile floor. _Why does my mom want me to stay with her? We've never met! Why now? She could've kept me before but she chose not to. _ I think, really not understanding. I think Ms. Monroe wants me to say something but I can't think of anything to say so I stay in safe silence. Silence is always safe, no matter whom I'm with even with Max-we can talk with facial expressions alone therefore words are not needed.

"Fang?" Ms. Monroe asks.

I refuse to look at her. _Does she want me to go live with my mom? She does; doesn't she? She doesn't want me either. I can't believe I ever thought she gave a crap about me._ I think bitterly.

I refuse to say anything. I'm moving again; there's nothing to say.

"She's really nice. She looks like you. She said her parents forced her to give you up. She told me she didn't want to do it." Ms. Monroe tells me.

I still don't know what to say so I duck my head and bury my face in my hands. I want Max. I want to talk to her about this.

**Ms. Monroe**

Fang's reaction to his mom wanting him to stay with her surprises me a little. I thought he might be at least a little excited about it-maybe or he might be annoyed that I interrupted his conversation with Max but I didn't expect him to shut down like this and I definitely didn't expect him to cry. Maybe his mom calling wasn't such a good thing after all.

I love this poor, sweet boy as much as I would love a son but I never know how to comfort him. I try to hug him but he flinches and lets out a small, frightened sound. Then he surprises me by hugging me back tightly.

"It's okay Fang. It's okay." I tell him in a gentle voice.

_Poor Fang. _I think as I rub his back. _He's such a good kid and he shouldn't have to go through all this heart-ache all the time. I guess his tears make sense. His mom put him and his sister up for adoption when he was a baby so he always assumed that she never wanted him and he must be scared since the last time he was found by a parent he ended up in the emergency room, nearly dead. Oh, I don't want him to go through that again and I know he doesn't want to go through that again either._

After probably two or three minutes Fang lets go and rubs his eyes.

"You don't have to see her if you don't want to." I tell him.

"I think I want to see her but…will you come and…can I bring Max?" He asks, almost silently.

"I'm sure that can be arranged." I smile at Fang. "And if you do decide that you want to stay you can visit as much as you want. Okay?"

For just the tiniest moment, I see a small glint of happiness in his eyes but then it's gone as soon as if came.

"C-can I go to Max's house? To tell her? Please?" Fang asks quietly.

"Of course, but don't forget to bring your phone and be safe. Make sure you look both ways before you cross the street. Stay away from Dylan and his gang. Don't go into a stranger's house. Be polite. Say 'Ms.' and 'Mr." with Max's mom and boyfriend. Be nice to Max." I say but then realize I'm babbling when I see Fang's crooked half-smile. "Just go." I laugh.

Fang salutes and jumps off the balcony, onto the first-floor roof and then he jumps off the roof, lands in the grass, nearly giving me a heart-attack. Then of course he looks up at me and flashes a cheeky grin and waves before he runs across the grass, looks both ways and then runs across the street on his way to Max's house. I shake my head and laugh to myself. Although quiet, Fang is a comedian and I'll be sad to see him go.

**Max**

_Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock! Knock-knock!_ I hear from my balcony window. That's Fang's knock so I open the door and smile at him. My smile disappears when I see his eyes: they're puffy and red-he's been crying. What did she tell him?

"What happened?" I ask.

"My mom called Ms. Monroe. She wants me to stay with her." Fang says softly.

I'm shocked; his mom gave him and his twin sister Maya up for adoption when they were babies. "Are you gonna?" I ask.

He nods and whispers, "Can you come?"

"Of course but, why do you want me to come?" I ask.

"Scared." He whispers, sitting on the black balcony bench Mom bought me a few days ago.

"Why?" I ask, sitting beside him.

"Last time one of my parents found me was horrible. What makes this time any different?" He asks softly.

"You can't think like that though." I tell him. "She's probably different."

"What if I have to move?" He asks quietly.

"I'll visit you and I'm sure Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, Ella, and Angel will come too." I reassure him, trying to keep my emotions in check. I can't break in front of him; he clearly feels awful enough already. I don't need to make it worse, but what am I gonna do without my rock?

"We won't have any more bus-stop talks." He says quietly, looking at me sadly.

"We can text from our separate bus-stops if it comes down to that." I tell him.

"But then I can't hear your voice." Fang whispers almost inaudibly.

"We could call each other from the bus-stops." I tell him, rubbing his shoulder.

He nods silently.

"It's gonna be okay Fang." I promise him.

Fang hugs me and I hug him back.

"I'll miss you if I have to move." Fang whispers into my hair.

"I'm gonna miss you too." I tell him, hugging him tighter.

We just sit here for a while, hugging each other tightly. I stroke his hair without really thinking about it while I keep my face buried in the safety of his shoulder, inhaling his scent. I can feel Fang rubbing my back by my shoulders and it feels so good. Then he starts stroking my hair and I have to force myself not to shiver as I feel chills go up my spine (in the best way possible). Then of course Iggy has to ruin it.

"Hey Max! Open up!" He calls, pounding on the door.

I groan and reluctantly pull away from Fang.

"Remember, you can't kill the guy your sister likes." Fang chuckles.

"Sure I can, she's pretty. She'll find someone else." I reply.

Fang laughs and I grin, I love the sound of his laugh, just like I love the way his smile lights up his face.

"I gotta go Max. I'll see you tomorrow." Fang says, standing on the balcony-railing.

"See ya." I smile, waving at him.

Fang jumps off the railing and lands perfectly in the grass as usual, then he looks both ways before he darts across the street. _I'm gonna miss him doing that when he leaves._ I think as I walk across the room to go find out what Iggy wants.


	15. Chapter 15: Fang's Birthmom

**Fang**

Max, Ms. Monroe and I go meet my mom. To keep up the fake boyfriend-girlfriend thing, Max reaches for my hand and squeezes it as we near the door that will either lead to some happiness or my imminent doom...Hopefully it's the happiness choice but since it's me we're talking about, it's probably the doom one. I hold a firm belief that God likes to challenge me. Well, my life isn't boring so He definitely does a good job keeping me on my toes. In some ways I prefer it over a boring one simply because I have gained some good things from it like Max, but she's not exactly a thing but, you get my point.

Anyway, I squeeze Max's hand back and she smiles reassuringly at me. I'm scared. I'll just say that now. When my dad found me, he nearly killed me because he got thrown in jail because of my birth. Which although wasn't exactly my fault but that's what he thought. For the reason listed above and because of all the foster homes I've been in that have resulted in me getting the crap beaten out of me (which has been all of them except Ms. Monroe's house,) I'm just a little nervous about meeting my mom. Why does she want me now? That's what I want to know. Why now? Why not before? This makes no sense. I didn't exactly object to her keeping me before, (you know, because I was a baby so I really had no opinion in the matter,) so why did it take her sixteen years to realize she wanted one of her twins? Why couldn't she have kept Maya and me from the beginning? Then Maya would still be here.

Ms. Monroe rings the doorbell and we wait. I'm freaking out on the inside but I manage to keep my face non-emote. Finally, a woman an inch or two taller than Ms. Monroe (who's three inches shorter than me,) opens the door. She has pale skin, dark brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair and eyes are both several shades lighter than mine...I must have inherited them from dear old dad-great. (Please note the heavy sarcasm.)

"Hello ma'am. This is Nicolas but he prefers to go by Fang. You and I talked over the phone. He's your son." Ms. Monroe says, gesturing for me to come forward.

I get closer and the woman smiles at me, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Hi sweetie." She says, hugging me.

I freeze. I've never met her before but she's hugging me. Is this normal? Someone-probably Max-gently eases my arms around the woman so I don't insult her by not hugging her back. The lady finally lets go and looks at me with a smile, "You look so much like your father." She says smiling wider.

I inwardly shudder. I don't want to resemble that abusive man in any way. He made Mr. Sullivan seem as harmless and carefree as a puppy.

"Come in, come in." She says, gesturing for the three of us to go into her house where all her weapons are probably stored. Yippee.

We all sit on the couches. My mom is sitting by Ms. Monroe on the sofa and Max and I are sharing the love-seat. (Heads out of the gutter people, that's just what it's called.)

"So, how do you like the house?" My mom asks.

"It looks nice." I say quietly.

"What?" She asks.

"It looks nice." I say a little louder.

"Come on sweetie, can you speak up a little? I can't hear you." She says.

"He said it looks nice." Max interjects.

"Thank you but I was asking my son, not you, silly." My mom tells Max with a light chuckle.

Ms. Monroe smiles.

"The house looks really nice." I say, louder this time.

"Aw, thank you. Wait til you see your room. Oh yeah, where's your twin?" She asks.

"She's...dead." I say quietly.

"What?" She asks.

"She's in Heaven." I say in a louder voice.

She looks a little sad but not much. Then she starts tearing up, and says, "Oh my poor baby. How did she die?"

I look down and say, "She was killed by a rogue foster father."

My mom gets up and hugs me, sobbing loudly. I awkwardly hug her back and she pulls away, saying, "At least I have you."

I nod, feeling weird.

"So, when are you moving in?" She asks, smiling broadly.

I look at Ms. Monroe who looks kind of sad. That's weird; I thought she _wanted_ to get rid of me.

"We'll pack his stuff up tonight and he can move in by tomorrow." Ms. Monroe says.

"Perfect." My mom claps, causing me to wince-Max too.

"We'll see you tomorrow." Ms. Monroe says, standing. Max and I stand up together and my mom hugs me again.

She walks us out and then Max, Ms. Monroe and I all pile into Ms. Monroe's car.

"She seems nice. I'm sure you'll have. Great time there Fang." Ms. Monroe says cheerfully.

I nod and look at Max who looks sad.

"At least we'll still go to the same school." I try weakly.

Max smiles and hugs me. I hug her back tightly, not wanting to ever let go, and we don't until Ms. Monroe pulls into Max's house. My shoulder feels wet and I'm sure Max's hair feels wet to because we both both shed a few tears on the way to Max's house. Things won't be the same and it's gonna suck. I'm sure to be back in foster care before I know it.

When Ms. Monroe pulls into her drive, I get out silently and we go inside the house.

"How about some burgers? I can cook them on the stove if you want." Ms. Monroe suggests.

"No thanks." I say quietly, before walking up the stairs to pack.

Ms. Monroe comes back in a few minutes later.

"Fang? Can I come in?" She asks, through the door.

"Yeah, you can't come in." I reply.

She opens the door and smiles sadly at all my stuff scattered everywhere.

"Do you need help packing?" She asks.

"Only if you want to." I answer, not wanting to be an unnecessary burden.

"Are you excited to live with your mom?" She asks.

I shrug, not knowing what to say.

"That ecstatic huh?" She jokes.

I manage a small smile for her sake.

"Can I hug you?" She asks.

I look at her, wondering why she's asking.

"Hugs always make you uncomfortable. I noticed your expression when your mom hugged you." She explains.

I nod and she hugs me. I hug her back, secretly wishing I could stay, knowing I'll never have the nerve to ask or receive the answer that I want.

* * *

**The next morning...**

**Fang**

Ms. Monroe helped me pack last night so all I have to do is get up and get dressed this morning. I go downstairs to find my favorite breakfast foods waiting: bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and her famous cookies. After breakfast we pack up the car and Ms. Monroe drives us to my mom's house.

"I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time with your mom Fang. Don't forget. You can visit whenever you like. Okay?" Ms. Monroe says as she says goodbye.

I nod and hug her. I know I've surprised her because it takes her a second to hug me back but I'm gonna miss her. Nobody has ever taken such good care of me as far as I can remember.

"Bye." I say as she walks away.

I turn to see my mom smiling at me.

"I'm happy to have you here Nicolas. Please, make yourself at home." She says, smiling at me. There's something about the look in her eyes that scares me a little.


	16. 16: Discoveries, Profanities and Tears

**Sorry for not updating in forever. Here's a super-long chapter to make up for it. Enjoy!:D**

* * *

**Fang**

"Can you do nothing right?" Mom screams, socking me in the stomach.

I silently take it, knowing that if I make any noise she'll just hit harder. She doesn't want me to be weak but I already know I am. I cry, not from physical pain but from mental and emotional pain. Regardless of the reason, crying is a sign of weakness. That's what Mr. Sulivan said, that's what Dad said, that's what the other foster-families said and that's what Mom says now. The only ones who didn't say that were Ms. Monroe and Max.

Oh Max, I miss her so much. Living with my birth-mom was a terrible idea. She took away my cell phone so I can't call Max, and she made us move from the house where Ms. Monroe, Max and I went to meet my birth-mom. We moved a week ago and now I'm not allowed to go to school because my mom says that I'm a screw-up and I can't do anything anyway so going to school would be redundant. She's not entirely wrong but school was where I saw max. I haven't seen her in a week and I miss her so badly that it hurts worse than the fists against my stomach from my mother and the knives that pierced my skin from my father when I was twelve. I should run away but if I do that then I'll never see Max.

I need help but for now all I can do is pray for an escape. Art used to be my escape until my mom figured out that I didn't completely suck at it so now she orders me to paint and draw so she can sell whatever I make. Art is supposed to portray beauty, so my pieces are of the only beautiful thing I know of: Max. I finally figured out how to get her nose right.

* * *

**Max**

It's been three weeks since fang moved in with his mom, two weeks since she took away his cell phone and one week since the last time he was at school. I know something's up and I've gone to that house where we met Fang's mom but after the tenth time, the neighbors finally enlightened me on how they moved a week ago. Fang hasn't been to school in a week. Coincidence? I think not! I'm going to figure this out…eventually. It's not for a lack of effort; I just haven't found him yet. I hope he's okay.

* * *

**A month later**

**Fang**

I'm not okay. I hate admitting this but I'm not. My mother is horrible. She hasn't let me go to school since we moved away and she keeps threatening to call my father who has evidently escaped from jail. I'm scared; the last time I saw that horrible man I ended up in the hospital because I nearly bled to death. I need to figure out a way out of here but she has surveillance cameras everywhere. I tried to make a break for it twice but both times her guards brought me back with a lot more bruises and a lot less blood than I had when I jumped out the window both times. I call them Erasers because they're slowly erasing any hope I have of escaping. I need to try again but I'm still recovering from my last attempt so I'm not that desperate yet. I pray every night for help. I know that God will get me out of this, I'm just not sure how or when He's gonna do it. I hope it's soon though.

* * *

**Max**

I'm going insane without Fang. I _know_ there's something wrong. If his mom really cared then she wouldn't allow him to miss this much school.

"Hello? Earth to Max?" Iggy asks, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry." I mumble, realizing I'm ignoring whatever he's trying to say.

His gaze softens. "You're thinking about him, huh?" He guesses.

I nod. We barely mention Fang by his name because I can barely talk about him now without bawling. I miss him and I'm worried; something isn't right.

"I know that you think there's some big controversy going on so I had Nudge use her super-powers to find out the addresses of houses bought in our area over the past three months. I'll help you search." Iggy says, holding out a stack of papers.

I look up at him blankly for a second. Is he serious?

"Yes Maxie, I can be serious sometimes. He's my friend too." Iggy informs me.

I punch his shoulder.

"Ow!" He yelps.

"Don't call me Maxie." I tell him.

He gives me a dirty look and then I hug him. "Thank you Iggy." I whisper into his shoulder.

"You're welcome Max." He replies, hugging me back.

I pull away and whisper, "Do you wanna sneak out and start looking?"

He blinks and smirks. "You miss Fangles that much that you'll skip to look for him?" He asks.

I glare at him and nod.

The bell rings and Iggy whispers, "Let's go."

That dear readers is how and why I skipped the rest of the day and therefore lost my goody-goody two-shoes rep. It was a sacrifice that just had to be made.

* * *

**Ten hours later**

**Max**

I groan in frustration. "How many houses are we going to have to go through before we find his?" I question.

"We've gone through a lot today Max, can we try again tomorrow?" Iggy yawns.

"I won't be able to try again tomorrow because I'm sure by then I'll be grounded." I complain.

"Same here. We better just make it easier on ourselves and turn ourselves in now." Iggy suggests.

I'm about to come back with something snarky but then something catches my eye. I see Fang's mom talking to a large man holding a gun. I discreetly roll the window down and listen to what they're saying.

"So the kid's in here?" The man asks.

"Yeah, where's my money?" Fang's mom demands.

"You'll get my money when I get to talk to the kid." The man grunts.

"No, I want the money by tomorrow or we're disappearing and you'll have to hunt us down." She says, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I have a loaded gun; I can kill you right here." The man says.

"I have soldiers in the house; you take one step without me looking perfectly healthy and you're dead." She smirks.

The man glares at her. "Fine. I'll get you your money tomorrow." He huffs.

"I knew you would see things my way." She laughs.

I roll my window back up and look at Iggy who has gone pale and is gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turn white.

"She's going to sell her own son back to the man who beat the crap out of him when he was a kid. That man looked like Fang but bigger and I'll bet that guy's an asshole." I whisper, through gritted teeth. I'm so pissed I can't even see straight.

"You need to tell Ms. Monroe." Iggy says in a shaky voice.

"Oh my gosh, Fang!" I cry out, as images of him being tortured flash through my mind. I can only imagine what's happening to him right now. I've seen his scars, but I never wanted to put much thought into how he received them. I just wanted to put the past in the freaking past where it belongs! Now he's going to be hurt-or killed. Crap!

I put my face in my hands and sob the whole way home. Then it hits me. Jeb's a cop!

"Iggy!" I yell.

He jumps and swerves into the other lane. The driver of the car he nearly hit rolls his window down to flip Iggy off and starts yelling profanities at Iggy.

"Well same to you buddy!" Iggy yells out the window before rolling it back up. Then he looks at me, "Gee Max, give me a heart attack why don't you?"

"Sorry but listen, Jeb-my mom's boyfriend, he's a cop. He can save Fang!" I tell him.

Iggy smiles and relaxes a little.

* * *

**At home**

**Max**

Iggy drops me off and I see two angry adults waiting for me at the door.

"Maximum Ride! We got a call from the school! You skipped nearly the whole day! What do you have to say for yourself?" My mom demands.

"Iggy and I went searching for Fang because I knew that there was something wrong because he hasn't been to school in one month and one week. We found his mom talking to some man that I think is Fang's dad and he was holding a gun and his mom is going to let his dad hurt Fang again for money and they're going to leave tomorrow if she doesn't get the money. Don't you see? Fang's not being taken care of by his mom; he's being held captive! We need to save him!" I explain in a rush.

My mom looks from me to Jeb to me again, clearly not sure what to think but she knows how I look when I lie and when I tell the truth. I can tell by the look she's giving me that she knows I'm telling the truth.

"Jeb, please send someone to help Fang. I even have an idea as to how to do it." I say.

Jeb hesitates, looking at my mom who nods before he looks back at me. "What's your plan Max?" He asks.

* * *

**Two Hours later**

**Max**

I'm surprised Jeb and Mom allowed me to carry out the plan but here I am at the house where Fang is being held captive by his own mother. I take a deep breath, my heart pounding in my chest and knock on the door.

Fang's mom answers the door, yanking it open looking really annoyed. "What do you want?" She demands.

"Hi, I'm Max. I'm a friend of F-Nick from school." I say, trying to smile politely even though in my head I've already decked her twice.

"So that loser has friends; huh? And his name's Nicolas. I won't have that Fang or Nick crap I mean seriously, his sister must have been a complete idiot if that's what she decided to call him." She says.

I frown, clenching my fists behind my back so she can't tell how much I want to strangle her. "Fang's sister is dead." I remind her.

She just rolls her eyes at me like I'm stupid. "Obviously, or else I'd have the set." She says.

"How is he?" I ask. "Can I see him?"

"He's a wreck, always sobbing in his room. He's so pathetic but he does good work. His pictures are making me filthy rich." She says.

_Well you've already got the filthy part covered._ I think, looking into the house to see trash everywhere and black marks on the wall that look like someone's put cigarettes out in those areas.

"Ma'am, Fang needs to go to school; at this rate he's going to fail." I inform her, hoping to get to whatever maternal instincts she might have.

"I really don't care." She says flatly.

"Can I see him?" I ask again. "Please?"

"Sure, give me five bucks." She replies, holding her hand out.

I give her a look. "Really?" I ask.

"Yes; cough it up." She says, wiggling her fingers.

I flare at her and give her the money. She gestures for me to follow her into the house. She closes the door behind us and walks over to the staircase.

"Nicolas! You have a visitor! Take her to your room but don't do anything stupid or you're in big trouble!" She shouts up the stairs.

Fang appears at the top of the staircase, holding one of his hands in the other. I think I can see little drops of red leaking through the spaces between his fingers and my blood goes cold as I realize it's blood.

"What did you do now?" She yells. Fang shrinks at her voice and I have to restrain myself from lashing out at his mother.

"You wanted me to try sculpting. M-my hand slipped." Fang says quietly.

"Why do you have to be such a failure? You're a good-for-nothing low-life! You are pathetic! You are worthless! I don't know why I keep you around. Nobody wants you! Why should I? You're a pathetic excuse for a son!" She yells.

Fang looks ready to cry and him mother shoves a white box into my hands. "Go take care of his hand for me; will ya?" She says.

I have to refrain from running up the stairs to Fang. "Where's your room?" I ask when I reach him.

He leads me to his room and I close the door behind us. I look around his room and see paintings of well, me and a few sculptures too. The walls are a dingy white and he has a few blankets piled in a corner; I guess that's his bed.

"Art used to be my escape. Now she's taken it away." Fang whispers, staring at his hand.

"Oh Fang." I whisper, tossing the box to the floor so I can hug him.

Fang hugs me back tightly and can feel my shoulder become wet as he begins to cry. "She hates me Max. She's just having me here so she can hurt me and so I can make her rich." He whispers in a choked voice.

"What did she do to hurt you?" I ask, furious that anyone could make Fang cry. He deserves to be happy.

He pulls away and lifts his black tee-shirt, revealing nasty bruises and cuts. I look at his face; nothing but his tears reveals his abuse. I gently put my hands on his face and wipe away his tears even though they continue to flow strongly.

"Shh, shh, it isn't gonna be like this forever. I promise." I tell him.

"I'm just going to be sent back to the orphanage if I ever leave. Nobody wants me Max. No one at the orphanage, my own mom doesn't love me, I was just a toy to Lissa, Ms. Monroe only let me stay with her because she felt sorry for me, Mr. Sulivan wanted me dead, my father hates me, nobody wants me. They're all right. I'm worthless and nobody wants me; nobody could _ever_ want me." He says between silent sobs.

"Don't say that Fang; it isn't true." I tell him quietly, as my eyes well up with tears.

"What are you talking about? It is true." He says, looking and sounding like he believes it himself, like he really doesn't believe that anyone could ever love him.

"No it's not Fang. Look at me." I say, he cautiously meets my eyes waiting for me to turn into a monster too. "I want you Fang." I tell him.

"Why would you want me?" He asks, his tears still falling.

"Because I love you Fang." I whisper and then I kiss him on the lips. It's sad because by now we're both crying but it's still undeniably beautiful and full of love.

Fang looks surprised when we pull away for air. "Did you really just?" He starts.

"Yes; of course I did." I tell him.

Fang grins that crooked grin of his and kisses me on the lips. This time when we pull away for air he says, "I love you Max."

"I love you too Fang." I reply and then lower my voice. "I'm gonna get you out of here. I promise."

"Please don't leave yet." He says, putting his hands over mine which are still pressed against his wet cheeks.

"I won't, I'm just telling you that I _will _get you outta here. You aren't alone. I'll be your escape." I whisper.

Fang smiles a real smile with teeth and everything. "That sounds good." He whispers.

"Nicolas!" Fang's mom yells, stomping up the stairs.

Fang shrinks at her voice, his eyes full of fear.

I put my forehead against his. "Shh, shh, it's okay." I whisper in a gentle repetition.

"What is this? While you're at it, will you explain why there are so many cars outside?" His mother demands.

"What do the cars look like?" I ask.

"They're white but they look like." Her voice trails off and I can feel her glaring at me.

"They look like what?" I ask innocently, looking up at her from where Fang and I sit on the floor.

"You little-" She's cut off by the sound of people breaking down the door and running upstairs. Police officers enter the room and point guns at her.

"Okay so you got passed the five guards; good for you." She tells them in a condescending tone.

"Actually, there were ten and you are under arrest." Jeb says, putting handcuffs on her.

She frowns and glares at us. "I'm gonna get you Nicolas! And your little girlfriend too!" She yells as she's dragged away by the rest of the cops.

"How did you?" Fang asks.

I pull my hoody up enough to reveal the wire Jeb gave me. "Jeb's a cop." I remind him.

Fang smiles. "Thank you Max."

I just smile back and he kisses me. Of course Jeb just had to come in _right then_.

He clears his throat and Fang and I jerk away from each other, our faces flushing.

"Are you kids all right?" Jeb asks, smiling at the embarrassment he's caused us.

"We're good." We say in unison.

"Thanks Jeb." I add, smiling up at him.

My phone rings playing "Be My Escape" by Relient K.

"I still love your ringtone." Fang smiles at me.

I smile back at him and answer the phone. It's Ms. Monroe.

"It's for you." I tell him, handing him the phone.

Fang looks confused but his face lights up when he answers the phone.

* * *

**Fang**

"It's for you." Max smiles at me, handing me her phone.

"Hello?" I ask, feeling very confused.

"Fang?" Ms. Monroe asks frantically.

"Yes?" I ask, not sure what else to say.

"Thank goodness. Oh sweet boy I was so worried. I am so sorry I let that wretched woman take you away. She seemed so nice and I thought that since she was your mother she'd take good care of you. I am so sorry honey. Do you want to come home? You can if you want." She says.

"Home?" I ask. I don't really have a home exactly.

"Yes, you always have a place at my house. Also, if you want to come back, I'm going to need to talk to you about something; okay?" She says.

"Uh, okay. Um, I'd like to stay, but only if it's okay with you. I don't want to be a burden." I tell her, feeling really awkward but sad because I want to stay with her so badly but I really will just be in the way. She doesn't need me so having me there will be superfluous.

"Of course it's okay with me Fang! I _want_ you here. Sweetie, I want to adopt you. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." She replies.

I must have heard that wrong. "What?" I ask.

"I want to adopt you." She says.

"You want to adopt me?" I repeat.

"Yes, of course I do. You're a wonderful boy and I'd be happy to call you my son." She tells me.

My throat clogs with new tears. "You want me to be your kid?" I ask.

"Yes Fang. What do you say?" She replies.

"That sounds good." I say quietly into the phone, as sobs begin growing in my throat.

"I'll see you soon Fang." Ms. Monroe says. "I love you honey."

"See you." I say, hanging up the phone, handing it back to Max with a shaky hand.

Max put the phone back in her pocket and looks at me carefully, concern etched in her features as she notices the new tears. "What did she say?" She asks.

"She wants to adopt me." I whisper, as the tears spill from my eyes, flowing down my cheeks before dripping off my chin.

"Of course she does. You are very loveable Fang." Max smiles. "This is really great! I'm so happy for you!"

I hug Max, crying with relief that everything's gonna be okay.


	17. Chapter 17: Be My Escape

**The sequel: No Matter What is now uploaded. Enjoy.:)**

* * *

**Christmas Eve**

**Max **

So there you have it folks, Fang's safe at home with Ms. Monroe, they went to court the day after we rescued him so now he's Fang Monroe. It has a nice ring to it I think. Ella turned sixteen on Thursday so Iggy finally asked her out, Nudge's parents never gave her an age-rule so Gazzy asked her out without any issues. It's kind of fitting, the two brothers dating the two best friends. I'm sure that's all going to work out but if Iggy hurts Ella I will personally kill him. Same with Nudge too-she's like a sister so if Gazzy hurts her then he's in trouble. Of course, Ig and Gaz are like my brothers so I hope none of the happy couples get into any fights any time soon.

As for Angel, she's still six and too busy worrying about "coodies" to try to get a boyfriend of her own (thank goodness). My mom and Jeb are getting along really well and I've definitely warmed up to the man who saved my at the time fake boyfriend but now very real boyfriend. How are Fang and me? We're great. We didn't even bother telling everyone that it was all a sham since we felt the same way the whole time. No point you know? Well, I need to put this book away. My mom's calling me downstairs for Christmas Eve Service at church.

Fly on,

Max

* * *

**Christmas Day**

**Fang**

It's been a few weeks since Max saved me from my mom. She helped me escape from that nightmare. I love her so much and I'm glad I don't have to hide it anymore. Now I can scream it to the world...although that would be remarkably out of character for me and I think Max would take me to the hospital. Anyway, Ms. Monroe and I are going to Max's house for Christmas, Iggy and Gazzy's family will be there, and Nudge's too. I wanted to walk but we would have had to carry gifts and food in the snow which realistically would have been very inconvenient and kind of stupid since we have access to a working vehicle, so we're driving to Max's house.

"Are you excited?" Ms. Monroe asks (I'm still not sure whether I should call her Mom or not. Part of me doesn't know if she'd want it and part of me doesn't like to be reminded of that crappy month and a half or however long I was stuck with my birth mom.)

"Yes, it should be fun." I reply making sure to be respectful and not say "yeah" to an adult.

"I'm glad you're happy again." Ms. Monroe says, smiling at me for a second before gluing her eyes back to the road.

"I'm happy to be home." I tell her, smiling back.

She looks as though she may cry but keeps her eyes on the road. My heart fills with dread and I wonder what I did wrong. Why's she suddenly upset?

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Oh nothing's wrong sweetie, you just have no idea how happy I am to hear that." She says.

Then we reach Max's house. I get out and open Ms. Monroe's door. Then I sort of awkwardly hug her.

"You're a good mom." I tell her softly.

"And you're a good son Fang." She says, hugging me back tightly.

Aside from Max, she's the only one I can hug and still feel safe with. I'm even wary of Nudge sometimes and she's one of the sweetest people I know.

"Let's go join the party." I suggest, pulling away.

"Yes, I wouldn't want to keep you from your girlfriend." She says, smiling at me.

I feel my face flush and I hope Max doesn't see as I start grabbing gifts from the trunk.

We knock on the door and Ella answers, babbling about where to put the presents and food. I considers times like this valid evidence as to why she and Nudge get along so well. I ask where Max is and Ella just giggles, pointing to the staircase where Max is making a grand entrance in a red dress of modest length that covers everything but doesn't make her look like a nun as Max once put it. It comes down to her knees, her legs are covered in white tights and she's wearing green Vans. She looks very festive.

"Fang, you're drooling." Iggy unhelpfully informs me.

I ignore him and walk over to Max, vaguely hearing Iggy say something about reporting PDA and Ella saying something about giving people privacy. They're gone in a matter of seconds, leaving just Max and me. Her hair is done so it's wavy and she looks gorgeous. I mean, she always looks beautiful when she doesn't try but now...she looks stunning and way out of my league. I'm one lucky guy to have such a gorgeous, remarkable and wonderful girlfriend on both the inside and outside.

"You look beautiful." I tell her. "I mean, you always look great without trying but you clean up quite nicely."

Max blushes awkwardly. "Thanks, whenever we have company for holidays my mom makes me dress up. Ella nearly attacked me with make-up before-I'm guessing you-knocked on the door and she ran downstairs. You saved me from the brutal attack to my face and for that I thank you." She says with a curtsy.

I chuckle at her joke. "No make-up at all; right?" I ask.

"None." She replies.

"You really don't need it. It would be a waste to put paint on an already beautiful canvas." I tell her, blushing as I reveal these truths.

Max blushes the color of her dress and says, "Thanks."

"I have a present for you." I tell her.

"We aren't supposed to exchange gifts until later. We all have to make that circle while eating cookies and fudge." She says.

I pull out the mistletoe and Max smiles. "It's kind of a present for both of us and I really don't think your mom would appreciate watching me give this to you." I say with a grin.

"What are you waiting for then?" She asks with that mischievous spark in her eyes that makes me feel elated.

With that I kiss her and she kisses me back. Jeb clears his throat and we whirl around real fast, both of us with wide eyes and red cheeks. He just wiggles his finger at us, making tsking sounds. Then he leaves and I let out a sigh of relief. I sound like such a wimp right now but frankly, I don't give a crap.

Max just laughs at me.

"What?" I ask.

"I've never seen your face so red before. It matches my dress." She laughs.

"That just means I now have to follow you around all day since I'm clearly your accessory and not a human being." I retort.

"If you say so." She says with a smirk.

"Food's ready!" Nudge says.

When did Nudge get here?

As if sensing the question and appearing at a time of inconvenience as always, Iggy helpfully says, "She came while you two were making out. Her mother wasn't too thrilled to see the action."

I glare at him and so does Max. Then Iggy wisely leaves. I look at Max and gently out the mistletoe in her hair.

"There, now I have an excuse to kiss you whenever I want." I joke.

"When have you ever needed an excuse?" She smirks.

I kiss her again, catching her by surprise.

"I love you Max." I whisper.

"I love you Fang." She whispers back.

"Merry Christmas." I whisper.

"Feliz Navidad." She whispers before kissing me.

So yeah, all in all this was a pretty good first semester. I met a girl who became my best friend, I saved her from her abusive dad, she saved me from a perverted psychopath, I showed her that not all guys in her life will treat her like crap, she showed up a spoiled, stuck up snob with her mad singing skills, she saved me from my abusive mother and showed me that people can love me. Now we're together and I'm kissing the most beautiful, funny, smart, tough, and kind girl on Earth. I guess it pays to have anti-social tendencies. If I hadn't then I never would have met Max, I never would have met my escape, I never would have met my soulmate and we never would have fallen in love.

Until next time,

Fang

**Be My Escape**

**(by The Relient K)**

_I've given up on giving up slowly, I'm blending in so_

_You won't even know me apart from this whole world that shares my fate_

_This one last bullet you mention is my one last shot at redemption_

_Because I know to live you must give your life away_

_And I've been housing all this doubt and insecurity and_

_I've been locked inside that house all the while You hold the key_

_And I've been dying to get out and that might be the death of me_

_And even though, there's no way in knowing where to go, promise I'm going because_

_I gotta get outta here_

_I'm stuck inside this rut that I fell into by mistake_

_I gotta get outta here_

_And I'm begging You, I'm begging You, I'm begging You to be my escape._

_I'm giving up on doing this alone now_

_'Cause I've failed and I'm ready to be shown how_

_He's told me the way and I'm trying to get there_

_And this life sentence that I'm serving_

_I admit that I'm every bit deserving_

_But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair_

_'Cause I've been housing all this doubt and insecurity and_

_I've been locked inside that house all the while You hold the key_

_And I've been dying to get out and that might be the death of me_

_And even though, there's no way in knowing where to go, promise I'm going because_

_I gotta get outta here_

_'Cause I'm afraid that this complacency is something I can't shake_

_I gotta get outta here_

_And I'm begging You, I'm begging You, I'm begging You to be my escape._

_I am a hostage to my own humanity_

_Self detained and forced to live in this mess I've made_

_And all I'm asking is for You to do what You can with me_

_But I can't ask You to give what You already gave_

_'Cause I've been housing all this doubt and insecurity and_

_I've been locked inside that house all the while you hold the key_

_And I've been dying to get out and that might be the death of me_

_And even though, there's no way in knowing where to go, promise I'm going because_

_I've gotta get outta here_

_I'm stuck inside this rut that I fell into by mistake_

_I've gotta get outta here_

_And I'm begging You, I'm begging You, I'm begging_

_You to be my escape._

_I fought You for so long_

_I should have let You in_

_Oh how we regret those things we do_

_And all I was trying to do was save my own skin_

_But so were You_

_So were You_

* * *

**So yes, this is the last chapter of Be My Escape. Thanks to everyone who has stuck around for Max and Fang's journey. I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have. Special thanks to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed my fanfic. It's been fun and please look for the sequel: No Matter What which is now uploaded. Until next time, Fly on!**

**-Kay-**


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